Job seekers blast out applications into the void. Employers drown in résumés and ghost candidates. AI bots make it worse on both sides.
That’s the broken loop Indeed CEO Hisayuki Idekoba says he hears about constantly. And he’s determined to smash it.
His fix: turn Indeed’s matching tools into something closer to a sharp recruiter. Guide applicants toward jobs where they actually have a shot. Help employers zero in on people who are real, qualified, and serious—not spam.
“It’s a vicious cycle,” Idekoba said. A restaurant worker blasting applications at $200,000 engineering roles instead of restaurant management jobs is the kind of mismatch he wants to stop.
The goal is simple: better matches for both sides. “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,” he said. “And how can we have real employers who are really trying to fill positions?”
Indeed is living the same tension. In July, it tested “Apply For Me,” a tool that auto-submitted applications. Feedback came fast. A month later the company paused it and shifted to having users review drafted apps before hitting send.
The Other 96%
Most people are still on their own. Indeed data shows only 4% of U.S. job changers with at least a high-school degree switched jobs last year after a recruiter reached out. The other 96% applied cold—often dozens of times—with radio silence.
Meanwhile, the flood of applications is crushing recruiters. Greenhouse analyzed 640 million applications across more than 6,000 companies from 2022 to 2025. Applications per job more than doubled. The average number of recruiters per organization dropped 56%.
Jalonni Weaver, an in-house recruiter at a life insurance firm near Dallas, has lived it. When volumes spike, there’s no time to read every résumé. Companies lean harder on automated screening. Suddenly it’s AI screening AI-polished applications, chasing narrow keywords and missing real transferable experience.
“We’re not hiring for perfection,” Weaver said. “We’re hiring for that real human, and we’re hiring for your experience.”
Verifying Both Sides
The AI arms race has made verification non-negotiable. Indeed checks employers before postings go live—work email verification, third-party identity checks, and limits on how long free postings stay up.
On the candidate side, phone verification is standard. The company is also testing a feature that lets applicants show independently verified professional licenses.
Still, Idekoba says verification alone isn’t enough. Employers have to stop treating volume as proof of quality.
“You got 1,000 applications, and you think all 1,000 people are not qualified?” he said. “Something’s wrong.”
Job postings on Indeed sat just 1.8% above pre-pandemic levels in mid-August, but the picture remains uneven—software roles are still soft. In a market where few people are switching jobs, the cycle feels especially punishing.
Idekoba’s bet: smarter matching and real verification can finally short-circuit it.