Anyone who has applied for a job in the last year knows the easiest way to get started is to toss a job description and your résumé into ChatGPT and ask the digital Shakespeare to pen three to four paragraphs with your accomplishments as its muse and then fire off the application in a matter of minutes. Not sure if TA pros would suggest that strategy, but it is definitely one that applicants have adopted since the OpenAI platform changed the game.

AI—a tool prized for tackling repetitive work and making mundane tasks easier—might actually be making one aspect of talent acquisition (TA) more difficult for pros, as the technology is making it easier for everyone—not just the qualified, but also the "hey why not" crowd—to submit applications.

According to new data from LinkedIn, which surveyed more than 22,000 consumer respondents and more than 8,000 global HR professionals in Q4 of last year, HR pros are spending more time sifting through résumés and applications. Some 22% report spending between three to five hours on the task daily, and almost three-quarters said that fewer than one-half of the reviewed applications meet all of the criteria on the job posting.

The tools that applicants are using to fire off a volume of applications is creating a logjam at the front of the hiring process, leading to some alternative strategies by TA pros to find the right talent.

Keep reading here.—AD

Sometimes, the grass is greener on the other side. But, in this labor market, recruiters are wishing for greener pastures everywhere.

The white-collar job market has been cooling, just as the blue-collar market has been heating up. In fact, hiring rates are highest for workers making less than $55,000 a year, and lowest for those making more than $96,000, according to data from investment company Vanguard.

“We’re having two different experiences on the labor market that are quite night and day,” Rachel Sederberg, senior economist at research firm Lightcast, told HR Brew. “Depending on who you ask, the labor market is either very hot or very cold.”

This split-screen labor market might be the result of a couple of factors, Sederberg said.

Keep reading here.—MC

Would you be surprised to hear that healthcare benefit costs rose last year and are expected to increase at an even greater clip this year? No? We aren’t either, TBH.

Employer-sponsored health plan costs rose 4.5% in 2024 to an average per-employee cost of $16,501, marking “a second year of elevated cost growth,” according to the latest Mercer survey of organizations with at least 50 employees.

Respondents said they expect health benefit costs to increase by 5.8% in 2025. Without making changes to health plans, respondents said costs would instead rise by nearly 8%.

Costs have tracked above the overall rate of inflation going back to at least 2013, the survey report shows, with 2022 being the sole exception.

Keep reading on CFO Brew.—AZ

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