Indeed CEO says the job market is stuck in a ‘vicious cycle’ if 1,000 qualified candidates can’t get hired: ‘Something’s wrong’

If trying to land a job or switch roles in 2026 has felt like sending resumes into the void, the frustration isn’t yours alone. Even Hisayuki Idekoba, CEO of Indeed, one of the world’s largest job-search platforms, has admitted that the hiring process has become a “vicious cycle.”

Job openings have slowed down while the number of applicants competing for each position has climbed, leaving many qualified workers applying to dozens—or even hundreds—of jobs without hearing back.

Employers, meanwhile, are facing their own challenges. Applicant pools are flooded with AI-generated applications, while scams involving fake candidates—including North Korean IT workers—have made it harder for companies to identify legitimate applicants.

“You got 1,000 applications, and you think all 1,000 people are not qualified?” Idekoba said to Business Insider. “Something’s wrong.”

Fortune reached out to Indeed for further comment.

AI is making the hiring process ‘worse,’ CEO says

Indeed’s CEO is not alone in expressing frustration with today’s job market and application process.

Daniel Chait, CEO of hiring software firm Greenhouse, has similarly pointed to frustrations on both sides of the hiring process.

“This is the first time when really both sides have been unhappy,” Chait previously told Fortune. “The market just isn’t working for either side.”

He also confirmed that the perceived “black hole” of job applications is real—and the data backs him up. The number of applications per job is up 111% between 2022 and 2025, while the number of recruiters has fallen 56%, creating a perfect form for both job seekers and employers.

Some recruiters, including Indeed, have turned to AI tools to help manage the growing workload and better match candidates with jobs.

“How can we make sure job seekers are a real person, and it’s not an AI application, and they’re serious, and they’re qualified,” Indeed’s Idekoba added. “And how can we have real employers who are really trying to fill positions?”

But applicants are using AI, too, to tailor resumes, write cover letters and improve their chances of getting noticed—creating another layer of complexity in an already strained process.

“We’ve called that the AI doom loop,” Chait said. “Everyone’s using their own AI to solve their own problem, but it’s making the whole system worse.”

And while there’s no easy fix for the system, his advice for candidates is to look beyond the companies with the biggest names and most attention, where competition for openings can be especially fierce.

“Don’t just apply to, you know, OpenAI, because they’re in the news every day,” Chait said to Fortune. “Think of the job you want and apply to less-known companies who do that type of work—you’ll find a lot more success.”

Getting hired often takes more than just applying

While applying cold can feel like the easiest—and most obvious—strategy, the problem may not be your résumé at all. It may be that the right people don’t know you’re looking.

Business professor and entrepreneur Scott Galloway has argued that networking can be the difference between simply submitting an application and having someone inside a company vouch for you.

“Google puts out a job opening, they get 200 CVs within like eight minutes. They limit it down to the 20 most qualified. Seventy percent of the time, the person they pick is someone who has an internal advocate,” he said on a Vice News podcast last year.

Galloway added that networking creates advocates who will recommend you for positions even when you’re not actively job searching: “You want to be placed in rooms of opportunities when you’re not physically there.”

Sanjay Beri, CEO of the $7 billion software giant Netskope, echoed that advice, saying that building those relationships can pay off long after the initial introduction.

“Who you know, how you get to know them and building your network will pay off over time,” the Gen X founder and CEO previously told Fortune. “Sometimes those jobs you want, they’re never published.”

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