Job Market - Worse in the Last 20 years, esp. in the Technology Sector

Job Market - Worse in the Last 20 years, esp. in the Technology Sector

Yes, the mortgage crisis and subsequent recession of 2008/2009 was tough on the broad market and if the tech sector did not have the enterprise cloud technologies that were (and rightfully so) as the "new way of computing" tech would have been in big trouble.

However, the job market since Feb 2025 is different.  It is weird, curious and possesses KPIs and other economic indicators that do not add up.  Stock market is up, unemployment is relatively low (at least given the parameters that Washington DC uses when publishing data), inflation is a deterrent but nothing is visibly truly crashing.  Is the economy on the verge of a catastrophic event - not really, given the resilience of the stock market and record corporate earnings. However, in this low-hire, low-fire environment as companies focus on AI investment while not truly understanding what their true COGS number, something is going to break.  

Perhaps things will look brighter when the Iranian conflict is over, the inflation dissipates, gas prices as well as fertilizer prices lower, and immigration policy begins to make an actual positive impact.  But fake job postings, AI- Interviewing, AI generated resumes, the worst level of employee / labor management relations in my lifetime, poor employee engagement, substandard leadership in the private and public sector (state, federal, local), the cynical attitude towards authority (with justification) are just several of a laundry list of issues that make this turndown different and not comparable to 2008. 

I welcome thoughts and predictions to where our economy is going because frankly, this is uncharted territory.

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Does this post add value to your business day? I post about job search best practices and issues related to the job market 2x per day M-F. Click "Follow" on my profile - Allan

https://www.linkedin.com/in/abrownresumewriter/ (posting job search advice 1 – 2x daily)

AI for Live Interview Assistance

 AI for Live Interview Assistance

Some candidates use real-time AI "copilots" or extensions  (JobLander or LockedIn AI) that listen to live calls through browser or desktop audio overlays and suggest answers on your screen. However, this is risky since hiring managers / recruiters can easily identify canned, robotic AI responses or detecting secondary device cheating. Many companies are moving back to strict live or face-to-face evaluation because of this.

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Does this post add value to your business day? I post about job search best practices and issues related to the job market 2x per day M-F. Click "Follow" on my profile - Allan

https://www.linkedin.com/in/abrownresumewriter/ (posting job search advice 1 – 2x daily)

Another Reason Not to Use AI-Generated Resumes

 Another Reason Not to Use AI-Generated Resumes

Resumes that are written with artificial intelligence (AI) software technologies will scan the job description of choice, then will do by whatever means possible to use each keyword (if all the correct language can be appropriately identified), usually in excess.  The result is content that does not read well, taken out of context and lacks any similarities of how a person would write use the written word in a normal environment, making the text clunky and unnatural.  

The sentences / phrases usually overuse the same prompts, the key words are overused and the resume will look like a job description, lacking accomplishments, not to mention requirements to pass most applicant tracking systems (ATS).

RESULT - Hiring managers can ID the origin of the documents, resulting in disqualification.

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Does this post add value to your business day? I post about job search best practices and issues related to the job market 2x per day M-F. Click "Follow" on my profile - Allan

https://www.linkedin.com/in/abrownresumewriter/ (posting job search advice 1 – 2x daily)

A tough labor market for young workers may be partly due to AI

 A tough labor market for young workers may be partly due to AI.

Recent graduates are facing the most challenging job market in years, with unemployment rates for new grads reaching 5.6% in early 2026, up 1.6 percentage points from 2023. This rise has fueled concerns that AI is replacing many of the jobs recent graduates once sought. Junior roles often involve routine research, analysis, and writing tasks that can now largely be done with AI. Consistent with this intuition is empirical evidence that AI may be dampening demand for new hires.

Source: Stanford University
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Does this post add value to your business day? I post about job search best practices and issues related to the job market 2x per day M-F. Click "Follow" on my profile - Allan
https://www.linkedin.com/in/abrownresumewriter/ (posting job search advice 1 – 2x daily) 

ATS - Another reason not to use a functional resume:

  ATS - Another reason not to use a functional resume:

Difficulty for Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) to scan: 

ATS systems are designed to parse chronological resumes, identifying headline, job titles, keywords, education, dates of employment. Functional resumes, with their emphasis on skills and abilities, are not compliant with ATS best practices, potentially leading to your resume being disqualified.

Hiring Managers and AI Generated Resumes

Hiring Managers and AI Generated Resumes

In a survey of 625 hiring managers, the following results are:

80% dislike seeing AI generated resumes and cover letters

74% indicated that they can spot AI content instantly

57% are less inclined to continue forward towards hiring a candidate if they used AI for their documents

In short, it is safe to conclude that hiring managers want resumes written by people, not machines.

(Source: Guide to Using AI for Job Applications)

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Does this post add value to your business day? I post about job search best practices and issues related to the job market 2x per day M-F. Click "Follow" on my profile - Allan

https://www.linkedin.com/in/abrownresumewriter/ (posting job search advice 1 – 2x daily) 

Why Hiring Managers / Recruiters Dislike Resumes Written By Robots (AI) - The Verification Gap

Why Hiring Managers / Recruiters Dislike Resumes Written By Robots (AI) - The Verification Gap

Anyone can prompt ChatGPT or other AI software to claim complex technical or leadership skills, hiring managers can no longer trust resume claims. When polish becomes meaningless, recruiters fall back on trusted signals like employee referrals and hard-to-fake metrics. 

Source: Dannielle Bradley (YouTube)

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Does this post add value to your business day? I post about job search best practices and issues related to the job market 2x per day M-F. Click "Follow" on my profile - Allan

https://www.linkedin.com/in/abrownresumewriter/ (posting job search advice 1 – 2x daily) 

Advice for Anyone Who Graduated School Post Winter 2020 (Part 2):

  Advice for Anyone Who Graduated School Post Winter 2020 (Part 2):

This is the second posting of a new series designed to help those who have been most affected (from a career standpoint) by what I will call "The COVID ERA".

1. Reading books can be correlated to not only improved knowledge but also high levels of professional achievement. For all "COVID ERA" professionals (see above), make it a point to read a book (paper, not kindle) related to your field of business or fundamental business practices (sociology books that are note too rooted in academia (Malcolm Gladwell books are perfect for this exercise).

Making reading of these type of books part of your professional persona will yield benefits for you now and later in your career.

Advice for Anyone Who Graduated School Post Winter 2020:

Advice for Anyone Who Graduated School Post Winter 2020:

This is the first posting of a new series designed to help those who have been most affected (from a career standpoint) by what I will call "The COVID ERA".

1. Make it a point to continually develop your business and technical skills, preferably in "real" classes and not "virtually". Place yourself in an environment where you can interact (1:1 or in a group) with other adult learners and teachers. You will benefit more than in-person exchanges as opposed to Google Meet, Zoom, etc.

Do not take the "virtual" way. It may be logistically easier but you are not getting the value you need / deserve.

Why AI Resumes Receive Negative Feedback (Part 3) - More About The Disjointed Interview

Why AI Resumes Receive Negative Feedback (Part 3) - More About The Disjointed Interview

The AI interview is actually a one-sided meeting dominanted by a machine.  The interviews are conducted by simple text-based chatbot pre-screenings and one-way video answers to responsive, real-time conversational AI agents that guide you through structured technical or behavioral questions.  If the candidates often cannot defend the skills, functions and/ or success stories that AI added to their resume, the chatbot will recognize the failure and disqualify the candidate.  

A horrible experience and a waste of time for all concerned.

Why AI Resumes Receive Negative Feedback (Part 3) - The Disjointed Interview

Why AI Resumes Receive Negative Feedback (Part 3) - The Disjointed Interview

On the premise that the interview is between people and not machines (yes - I said machines - this is happening more often with companies using virtual technology to conduct an artificial intelligence (AI) interview while the candidate is answering the questions with an AI assistant (cannot make this stuff up)), the candidate fails to provide truthful context to the content (qualitative / quantitative) in the resume.  

In sum, this is a colossal waste of time for all parties.  It is imperative that the candidate is able to showcase how an achievement was accomplished and that the success story is consistent with the numbers / content that was provided in the resume.  Hiring managers / recruiters are keen to the game played by applicants using AI.  It does not sit well and will result in an abrupt end to the interview and immediate disqualification.

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Does this post add value to your business day? I post about job search best practices and issues related to the job market 2x per day M-F. Click "Follow" on my profile - Allan

https://www.linkedin.com/in/abrownresumewriter/ (posting job search advice 1 – 2x daily)