The job search landscape has undergone a dramatic transformation, with online platforms like LinkedIn, Indeed, and Glassdoor reshaping a multibillion-dollar industry. As these giants adapt to new competitors and evolving expectations, they're turning to AI to revolutionize job seeking with "personal talent agents." But will the rapidly evolving tech be a good or bad thing for job seekers?
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00:00How we search for jobs has transformed drastically over the last two decades.
00:06Platforms like LinkedIn, Indeed, and Glassdoor are among the key players in online recruitment.
00:12These companies have reshaped their industry, carving out an $11 billion market projected to
00:17grow to $41 billion by 2032. And in a survey of 1,000 job seekers, 40% of respondents credit
00:26job search engines to securing an interview, 35% say company websites are the way to go,
00:32and 34% say word of mouth networking is the best way to nail down an interview.
00:37But today, the industry is more than just listing a job or networking to find one.
00:42The rise of AI and evolving expectations from both employers and employees are driving hiring
00:48companies to new levels of innovation. But just how are these companies adapting with
00:53new competitors coming to the market? And how will AI play a role in our future job searches?
01:00Indeed is one of the key players in an increasingly competitive market.
01:04It's owned by Recruit Holdings, a Japanese employment agency with a market capitalization
01:09of $75 billion. That's larger than some of Japan's biggest-named companies like Honda Motor
01:16and Nintendo. Indeed fluxes as the number one job site in the world, with over 350 million unique
01:23visitors every month in 2023. And it intends to stay that way. Leading the effort is Chris Hyams,
01:30CEO of Indeed, who joined the company in 2010 as vice president of product.
01:35Hyams credits the company's job-first approach for building trust in its 20-year history.
01:41We exist only to help people get jobs. And I believe the most important factor in influencing
01:48how a company makes decisions about their products and their services is how they make money.
01:51That's because Indeed gives employers the option to sponsor a job listing,
01:55with prices starting at $5 a day or $150 a month.
02:00We only make money when we are helping an employer and a job seeker connect, which means that
02:05all of the data that we collect from job seekers is used only to help them better match for the
02:12best opportunities possible. They're going to find the opportunities they're looking for and
02:15they won't be finding themselves reached out for irrelevant things or targeted for advertising.
02:21That's not why they came to the site in the first place. Indeed shares a hiring space with other
02:25sites like LinkedIn, which offers not only a constantly updating job board, but also a space
02:31to network with other career-focused professionals. But Hyams says this comes with a cost.
02:36If you look at other businesses like LinkedIn, an amazing company, we have a huge amount of
02:41respect for them, a portion of the revenue comes from employment. They also make a huge amount of
02:45money from advertising and from sales and other things. And so as a person who comes on to the
02:53site, are you being targeted just for employment opportunities or for a whole host of other things?
03:00But adding social media into the mix of hiring has been massively successful for LinkedIn.
03:05In the 2024 fiscal year, LinkedIn reported revenues exceeding $16.37 billion,
03:12up from almost $15 billion in the previous year. The platform boasts over a billion members in 200
03:18countries and regions, and has also ranked 116th on America's most innovative companies by fortune.
03:25LinkedIn's revenue streams include a significant contribution from advertising, which generated
03:30$5.9 billion in 2022. Meanwhile, its premium membership surpassed $1.7 billion as of March
03:392024. Glassdoor, also acquired by Recruit Holdings, has built a reputation for services
03:45that encourage transparency in the job market. Christian Sutherland Wong, CEO of the job site,
03:51emphasizes that Glassdoor's platform allows people to hold employers accountable,
03:56particularly around pay transparency, a critical issue in today's labor market.
04:01At the end of the day, it's transparency that's going to be the ultimate solve
04:05for a lot of pay inequity that we see in the U.S. and around the world.
04:09The platform's option to be anonymous has made it a popular outlet for employees to be honest
04:14about their employers. And the anonymity has built trust and helped prospective employees
04:19understand what really goes on behind the scenes at companies. As of 2024,
04:24Glassdoor reports over 63 million unique monthly visitors and hosts more than 212 million reviews,
04:31salary details, and workplace insights.
04:34The value of Glassdoor's platform is that we have trust with the people who use it. And so we put
04:39in a ton of processes and a ton of investment in making sure that people can trust the platform.
04:44Without that trust, we can't exist. So we take it really, really seriously.
04:48Despite their progress, these companies, like many others in various industries,
04:52have also faced layoffs. In 2024, LinkedIn reportedly laid off about 200 employees from
04:58its engineering and customer support teams. In May, Indeed laid off around 1,000 employees,
05:04representing about 8% of its workforce. Artificial intelligence has also become
05:09a focal point for job sites looking to utilize technology to improve efficiency.
05:14Recruit Holding is investing heavily in AI. The company's leaders tout this as a new era
05:19in hiring that will provide users with a personal talent agent powered by generative AI.
05:25I see what AI can do is effectively take this kind of very white glove experience
05:29and make it available for the masses. An agent could be on your side to take you through your
05:34job seeking journey and make it a much smoother and more powerful experience for you as a job seeker.
05:39For Indeed, this approach to AI is also at the core of their strategy.
05:43If you think about how a talent agent works for athletes and for musicians,
05:48that is someone who understands everything about you, about the market,
05:52and who works tirelessly on your behalf. This is one of the things that generative AI can
05:56actually bring. We have the first versions of this that we are going to be releasing in the
06:00coming months. And we see a real future where every single person will have a champion just
06:06for them that is helping and working tirelessly to connect them to the best opportunities.
06:12As the hiring landscape evolves, platforms like Indeed, LinkedIn, and Glassdoor aim to connect
06:18people with opportunities in smarter and more efficient ways. AI is set to play a pivotal role
06:24transforming job seeking, promising agent-like chatbots to improve the experience for users.
06:30But the question remains, will AI be a force that better connects humans to jobs,
06:36or will it diminish the number of humans needed in the workforce?