💼 Recruitment in the age of AI: Mass layoffs across major Big Tech companies and legacy brands have been making headlines in the business press, AI has thousands of jobs at high risk of automation replacement, and AI-powered applicant tracking systems have flooded the market, making it impossible to cut through. Businesses and recruiters are struggling to find the right talent, and job seekers’ foremost challenge is getting their foot in the door. The result? The fundamentals are changing.

Flip it and reverse it

Job seekers are no longer the catch; they’re the clients. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics’ January 2026 Employment Situation report (pdf), the average job search in the US takes as long as six months to yield results. As candidates’ desperation to land a full-time white-collar job mounts, we’re seeing a fundamental shift in how recruitment works. Candidates, rather than companies, are now the ones seeking out recruiters — and it comes at a cost.

With most big-name companies downsizing, recruiters are struggling to break even. For the first time since Covid-19, US unemployment surpassed open positions, according to data from the Bureau cited by the Wall Street Journal. This means recruiters can no longer rely on companies as clients, and many have begun pitching themselves to job seekers. The price tag? It varies, but it’s hefty. For job hunters, costs may range from upfront flat fees of up to USD 1.5k to significant cuts from their annual paychecks upon a successful hire.

Resume writing services have also grown in popularity — at an estimated CAGR of 7% from 2026-2033, according to a recent report — and the career coaching industry has seen 15% growth since 2023. This reverse recruitment shift is a sign of a much deeper flaw in the system.

It looks like recruitment agencies are fighting AI fire with AI fire. Refer, one of the reverse recruiters cited by the WSJ, uses an AI chatbot called Lia to connect job seekers with companies. The bot makes over 20 introductions by showing job seekers to hiring managers, operating on a “success fee” model in which hired candidates pay the service provider 20% of their first month’s salary.

Individual recruiters are also going rogue. Online freelance marketplaces — such as Fiverr and UpWork — have also seen an uptick in reverse recruiters offering their services at a slew of price points. Names and services vary, but there remains a common denominator: job seekers are desperate enough to pay to work, and recruiters know it.

History may not always repeat itself

We’ve seen this before — without AI. During periods of economic uncertainty, reverse recruitment was a staple of the job market. WSJ notes the US economic downturns of the ‘70s and ‘80s, adding that employment agencies at the time routinely charged candidates, not employers, to secure positions — often at the same price tags being introduced today. In this day and age, however, cold-calling is out, and AI-powered messages are in.

While reverse recruitment can help candidates secure a paycheck, it might be doing more harm than good. The shift introduces even more inequality in navigating the job market, prompting the question: what happens now to the people who can’t afford these services? “Candidates who can afford the service have a leg up on those who cannot,” Executive Coach Liz Bentley told CBS.

What this means for regional leaders: While reverse recruitment agencies haven’t yet arrived at home, it’s not improbable that we’ll start seeing the wave manifest soon. In other words, you might not be getting the best candidates’ resumes, but the ones that can afford to bring them to your attention.

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