Story thread · 2 reports / 2 sources

The job application got faster. The job search got worse.

axios.com · 1d · first reportShare

Job hunting in 2026 can mean chatting with a robot, getting rejected by AI, encountering ghost jobs and competing with a flood of applicants. Why it matters: This isn't just candidates venting on LinkedIn or TikTok . The hiring process is increasingly taking longer and application apathy could be eroding trust in America's job market . What they're saying: "I think burnout is absolutely happening," Gorick Ng, a Harvard career advisor and UC Berkeley faculty member, tells Axios. "We've moved past the ordinary job search burnout into systemic cynicism," he says. "Candidates assume that every posting is fake and every rejection is automated, and that their video-recorded interview won't ever even be touched, and so there's been this collapse of trust in the labor market." The big picture: Technology has made it increasingly easy for applicants to apply for jobs — and for employers to screen them out. Recruiters process roughly 291 applications per hire, compared with roughly 100 in early