AI adoption in recruitment has skyrocketed, according to employment platform iHire’s 2024 State of Online Recruiting Report released Aug. 20. The poll found that 14.7% of employers now use AI in recruitment, up from 4.9% in 2023.

Job seekers have also turned to AI, with 17.3% reported using AI tools in 2023 to write their résumés or cover letters, up from 2.8% in 2023.

The report by iHire also looked at several other online recruiting trends:

• Unqualified candidates. A majority of employers, 63.3%, cited an influx of unqualified applicants as a top hiring challenge, while 51% cited unresponsive applicants as their biggest issue.
• External factors. Job seekers are more concerned about external factors than employers, with 45.3% fearing that economic uncertainty will impact their job search or career growth in the coming year compared to 34.0% of employers who believe the economy will affect their hiring ability.
• Political discourse. The study found that 17.1% of job seekers and 8.7% of employers are worried about the impact of political discourse in the workplace due to the US election.
• Job board use. A majority of companies, 68.1% reported using job boards for “all” or “most” of their hiring, with 34.3% expecting usage to increase in 2025. Likewise, 67.0% of job seekers applied for a job through a job board in the past year. Additionally, 69.7% of job seekers always visit a hiring company’s website before applying for a role found on a job board.
• Ghosting. More than half of candidates, 54.7%, identified not hearing back from employers/being ghosted as a top job search challenge, and 45.0% believe this will hinder their ability to find work in the coming year.

The survey includes responses from 1,637 job seekers and 586 employers in the US across 57 industries. It took place in June.