“If your boss doesn't understand the value you bring, then you've got a problem and it's not your boss.”
TL;DR
Indeed's CEO says hiring is stuck in a "vicious cycle" where 1,000 applicants somehow can't include one qualified person, and Greenhouse data shows applications per job more than doubled since 2022.
Xbox cut 268 people in Washington, Expedia cut 58 in Seattle, and TrueUp's 2026 count hit 189,678.
Move of the week: pick 1 job out of every 5 you'd normally apply to, and find a human there before you hit submit.
📊 Poll of the Week
Did you get an interview this week?
🚨 The Big Story
Indeed's CEO: 1,000 applicants can't all be unqualified
What happened
Indeed CEO Hisayuki Idekoba said the quiet part out loud at his company's FutureWorks conference: "You got 1,000 applications, and you think all 1,000 people are not qualified? Something's wrong." He called hiring a "vicious cycle." Fortune
A post sharing the quote on X pulled about 94,000 views in a day. The top reply: "It has been a really difficult market for at least 2 years." Another person said Indeed kept emailing them its own openings. They applied to a couple they were qualified for. They haven't heard yes.
Why it matters
The math runs against you. Greenhouse, which makes hiring software, analyzed about 640 million applications and found applications per job rose from roughly 115 in 2022 to 244 in 2025, while recruiting teams shrank by more than half. Twice the pile, half the people reading it. Greenhouse
So companies screen with software, candidates apply with software, and Greenhouse CEO Daniel Chait has a name for the result: the "AI doom loop." And the side door is tiny. Idekoba told Business Insider that only 4% of US job changers last year moved because a recruiter reached out first. The other 96% went into the pile.
Our take
Credit where it's due: a job board CEO admitting the pipe is clogged is rare. But Indeed spent the summer testing Apply For Me, an AI tool that drafts applications for you, and it launched with a mode that submitted them automatically. That mode is paused now, and the tool has caps. Indeed's release Everyone is building the robots, then blaming the robots.
Idekoba's fix is verification: phone checks to prove you're a real person, verified employers, verified licenses. Useful. You still face a pile of 244 and a keyword filter.
Here's the part you control. The pile punishes volume and rewards proof: a real name, a referral, a specific reason you want this job. Chait's advice is to aim at companies people haven't heard of. Scott Galloway, quoted in the same Fortune piece, claims that when Google narrows a search to 20 finalists, 70% of the people hired have an internal advocate. That's his number, and we can't verify it. Every hiring manager we've read says some version of it anyway.
What to watch:
Whether Indeed switches Apply For Me's automatic mode back on. If it does, the pile grows for everyone.
California SB 951, which adds AI-layoff disclosure to Cal/WARN notices, is still on Newsom's desk. His deadline is September 30.
Your move:
Pick 1 job out of every 5 you'd normally apply to. Find one human there (a former coworker, an alum, the hiring manager) before you hit submit.
📉 The Layoff Report
Xbox cuts 268, Flock pays people to leave
Microsoft (Xbox): September 22. Fewer than 600 people globally, 268 of them in Washington state, as the next Halo game moves to Activision and studios get folded together. It's part of the 3,200-person Xbox cut announced in July. GeekWire
Expedia: September 22. 58 jobs at its Seattle headquarters, including data scientists, software engineers, and finance managers, effective November 21 to December 1. Its second Washington cut this year, after leadership said AI enables "smaller, faster teams." GeekWire
Trustly: September 17. About 200 people, roughly 25% of the Swedish open-banking company, mostly in Brazil, with roles also hit in Stockholm, London, and San Carlos. Tech.eu
Flock Safety: Reported September 18. The license-plate camera company offered buyouts to its roughly 1,500 employees, calling it its "most generous" severance package, after a wave of cities dropped their contracts. Without enough takers, it said, it would "almost certainly" need involuntary layoffs. TechCrunch
Smaller cuts, same week: Apple cut a handful of Fitness+ audio staff, per Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, two months after about 200 cuts in Vision Pro and Siri. Fintech lender BlueVine cut 80.
Bottom line: TrueUp puts 2026 at 189,678 people across 618 events, up 2,074 people and 16 events from last week. Part of that jump is Oracle's round finally getting numbers: 359 in Washington and 441 in California. Last week we said the real count was bigger than it looked. This is what that looks like. TrueUp
☀ The Bright Spot
Amazon is emailing its laid-off people back
Amazon recruiters are reaching out to former employees, including people it laid off, for AI, machine learning, and cloud roles, some with a "shortened path to a new job offer," per Business Insider. Amazon says boomerang hiring is routine, and Revelio Labs puts returning employees at 3.4% of US new hires. Your old employer is a network too. Treat it like one. Benzinga
🧠 The Hiring Manager’s Brain
Keyword filters miss what you've actually done
When applicant counts spike, resumes go unread. Jalonni Weaver, an in-house recruiter at a life insurance firm near Dallas, told Business Insider that the pileups push employers into automated screening, and those systems "often only look for a narrow set of keywords and can miss transferable experience."
Her own bar is simpler: "We're hiring for that real human, and we're hiring for your experience." The trouble is getting a human to that experience before the filter tosses it. Business Insider
What to do about it: Use the posting's exact words for skills you actually have. If it says "stakeholder management" and your resume says "cross-functional alignment," the filter scores a miss. Then go around the filter: send the recruiter or hiring manager 3 lines naming the role, the one result of yours that matches it, and why you want this job specifically.
👀🔧 Jobseeker Tools
Prove you're real, then find the human
LinkedIn identity verification: Free for eligible members through Persona with a government ID, and it adds a verification mark to your profile. With recruiters screening for fake and AI applicants, a verified name is a small, free trust signal. How it works
Hunter: Finds a person's likely work email from their name and company domain, so your 3-line note reaches the hiring manager instead of the pile. Free plan with a monthly cap; paid plans start at $34 a month. Try it
Offboard Network CRM: Tracks who you're talking to and when to follow up, so the advocate you found in week 2 doesn't go cold by week 6. OffboardOS
✅ Your Moves this Week
Pick fewer jobs, find the human
Pick 1 job out of every 5 you'd normally apply to, and find a human there before you hit submit. This is the move of the week.
Run your top 3 postings through the Ghost Job Checker before you spend an afternoon on any of them.
Swap your resume's wording for the posting's exact phrases, for skills you actually have.
Ex-Amazon? Check your personal email and LinkedIn messages for recruiter outreach, and answer anything in AI, ML, or cloud.
Offered a buyout, at Flock or anywhere else? Get the terms in writing and compare them to a standard severance package before you decide.
Answer the poll at the top. It's real this time.
Take one evening completely off from applying. The pile will still be there tomorrow (unfortunately).
The pile is real. So is your experience, and the fastest way through is one person who can vouch for it.
Hit reply and tell us: has a referral or a direct message ever gotten you further than an application did? We read every one.
Your next chapter starts with your next move.
The Offboard Team