The Hidden Job Market Is the Real Market: Why AI Is Burying Recruitment
- 13 minutes ago
- 2 min read
The job market isn’t broken, it’s just being buried alive under its own bullshit and AI promises.
Yep, I said it. ANZ-Indeed says job ads are down 3.3%. The ABS says unemployment is “steady.” Politicians call that “resilient.” But talk to any real job seeker, IT contractor or small tech business, and you’ll hear the truth:
• The system’s cooked.
• The numbers are fake calm.
• The experience is chaos.
The hidden job market is now the real market. It's like a black market.
Here’s the stat that should make you pause:
Over 70% of all jobs in Australia are now filled without ever being advertised.
Recruiters are drowning in AI-generated résumés and spammy “Easy Apply” applications, and they are complaining.
Many are going underground, hiring through referrals, WhatsApp groups, closed networks, and word of mouth.
If you’re waiting for a job ad to pop up on SEEK, you’re already weeks behind. (And they say SEEK and you shall find?) The traditional open market is shrinking. The hidden market is thriving. It seems that the recruitment sector is eating itself alive, and AI is front and centre. AI was supposed to make hiring smarter. Instead, it’s made it soulless, noisy and fake.
EasyApply has turned job boards into spam machines.
AI bots can now apply for 50 roles in 30 seconds.
GenAI résumé tools rewrite profiles to game the algorithms.
Chat and video bots are “interviewing” people with zero humanity.
And now, frustrated job seekers are fighting back. They are gaming the system, inflating titles, faking projects, even using AI to generate new experiences. Not because they’re dishonest, but because they’re desperate to please the ATS and be seen in a system that’s stopped seeing humans. And you know a market is in trouble when the scammers arrive, and they have certainly arrived!
Trust is collapsing on both sides.
Recruiters don’t trust candidates.
Candidates don’t trust recruiters.
Everyone’s exhausted. No one’s winning.
Meanwhile, the ABS says everything’s fine. Of course they do.
They survey 0.3% of the population, about 52,000 people, and count anyone who worked one hour last week as “employed.” That’s how a broken system keeps pretending it’s “stable.”
And here's how I see the reality of the situation:
Australia’s job market isn’t steady, it’s structurally dishonest.
It measures activity instead of ability.
It celebrates volume instead of value.
It rewards AI trickery over authentic connection.
The future of recruitment isn’t digital. It desperately needs to be human again - to serve the people. Let’s stop quoting job ads and unemployment rates like they mean something. Start valuing trust, authenticity and connection. Because behind every “steady” statistic is someone applying, hoping, hustling and wondering if anyone’s actually listening.
What do you think? Has recruitment lost the plot?
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