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Over Half of Recently Hired Workers Used AI Like ChatGPT in Their Job Search
By Pete Grieve MONEY RESEARCH COLLECTIVE
Job seekers used AI to write their resumes, draft cover letters, research salaries and more, according to new research.
Less than a year and a half has passed since the release of ChatGPT, and generative AI has already become a crucial job-hunting tool.
It’s no secret that applying for jobs can be taxing, and no one’s paying you for the time and labor you invest in all those cover letters, resumes and interview prep. This is likely part of the reason why 53% of recently hired U.S. workers say they used generative AI tools to help them with the job search process, according to a new report from ZipRecruiter.
That share of job seekers using AI has surged since the last time the job-listing site surveyed new hires in the second quarter of 2023. At that point, just 25% said they’d used AI while trying to find a new job.
How job seekers are using AI
Resume-writing is the No. 1 way that job seekers are using tools like ChatGPT, with 23% of those who used generative AI reporting it was for that purpose.
Recent hires also say they tapped AI for assistance with these tasks:
- Drafting a cover letter: 21%
- Researching careers: 19%
- Preparing for interviews: 18%
- Researching salaries: 16%
- Completing a pre-hire assignment: 15%
- Drafting correspondence: 11%
Career experts have mixed opinions about whether it’s a good idea to use artificial intelligence to apply for jobs. On one hand, these tools could save you time, allowing you to cast a wide net and potentially boost your chances of employment by getting more applications out.
But the quality of an AI-generated cover letter, for example, often won’t be as good as what you could write if you dedicated a couple of manual hours to the task — nor will it be as authentic of a representation of who you are and why you’re the right person for a particular role.
Workers can also run into trouble if they use AI in the application process to perform tasks that they’d otherwise be incapable of executing. Your employer will likely be displeased on your first day on the job to discover you lack the skills that you appeared to have in the application process.
Who is using AI to find jobs?
As you might expect, younger job seekers have adopted AI to a greater degree than those who are older, according to ZipRecruiter. Here’s a breakdown by generation of the share of of recent hires who said they used AI in their job search:
- Gen Z, which includes people ages 18 to 24: 56%
- Millennial, ages 25 to 34: 71%
- Early Generation X, ages 35 to 44: 60%
- Late Generation X, ages 45 to 54: 31%
- Baby boomer, ages 55 and older: 15%
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Pete Grieve is a New York-based reporter who covers personal finance news. At Money, Pete covers trending stories that affect Americans’ wallets on topics including car buying, insurance, housing, credit cards, retirement and taxes. He studied political science and photography at the University of Chicago, where he was editor-in-chief of The Chicago Maroon. Pete began his career as a professional journalist in 2019. Prior to joining Money, he was a health reporter for Spectrum News in Ohio, where he wrote digital stories and appeared on TV to provide coverage to a statewide audience. He has also written for the San Francisco Chronicle, the Chicago Sun-Times and CNN Politics. Pete received extensive journalism training through Report for America, a nonprofit organization that places reporters in newsrooms to cover underreported issues and communities, and he attended the annual Investigative Reporters and Editors conference in 2021. Pete has discussed his reporting in interviews with outlets including the Columbia Journalism Review and WBEZ (Chicago's NPR station). He’s been a panelist at the Chicago Headline Club’s FOIA Fest and he received the Institute on Political Journalism’s $2,500 Award for Excellence in Collegiate Reporting in 2017. An essay he wrote for Grey City magazine was published in a 2020 book, Remembering J. Z. Smith: A Career and its Consequence.