For many job seekers, it might seem like there's never been a harder time to find a job.
Hiring for white-collar jobs has been especially weak, part of what economists call a “low-hire, low-fire” job market in which businesses are largely holding onto their workers while hiring remains sluggish, making it difficult for younger workers to land permanent work.
Technology is also shaking up the hiring process. Automated systems enable job seekers to easily apply to more jobs, but those same systems also makes it even tougher to get noticed. According to data from hiring platform Greenhouse, the average recruiter has 3.5 times more job applications to sift through than they did a few years earlier.
But artificial intelligence has offered job seekers new ways to stand out, such as improving resumes or helping with interview prep. Here's advice from experts on how to use technology to your benefit:
An updated resume is one of the basic tenets of a job search. AI is a great tool for revamping CVs and cover letters but experts warn that everyone else has also already realized this.
AI “absolutely does risk reducing your job application materials to the same style as every other applicant’s,” said Daniel Zhao, chief economist at online job and recruitment site Glassdoor. “As a hiring manager, this is something I have seen myself in application materials that have clearly been customized using AI. For job seekers, that makes it hard for your application to stand out from your peers.”
Instead, take it a step further by using AI to “personalize your approach” to the companies you're most interested in, recommends Daniel Chait, CEO of recruitment firm Greenhouse. You could, for example, get AI to read all of a company's reports for the past year or analyze its job openings to “help you improve your cover letter or the wording of your resume in very specific ways,” he said.
A lot of people think there are secret tricks to getting a resume past the automated system that screens applications. One long-held belief is that you can add in keywords in white text, which a human won't see but a computer will.
But the latest systems have long since moved on from that practice, said Chait.
“There’s no secret keyword you can put in, that’s just wasting your time. Don’t bother doing that.”
You shouldn't just rely on your resume to land a job.
“The resume is still an important part of the job search process but it is not sufficient. You need far more than your resume,” said Pat Whelan, a product manager at LinkedIn.
With the rise of AI seeping into many parts of work life, Whelan said job seekers should show off any AI skills they have.
LinkedIn has teamed up with some AI platforms, such as Lovable and Relay.app, to certify that a user has the proficiency to use to AI to, for example, vibe code an app.
Others, however, say it's more important to make sure you have basic AI skills that the office jobs of the future will require, and which can be easily transferred.
“When the state of art is shifting so rapidly, focusing on narrow AI certifications or skills isn’t as important as being thoughtful about the benefits and risks and also being able to adapt quickly,” Zhao said.
The rules of the recruitment game are changing quickly and employers are now starting to include AI in their hiring guidelines, so do check whether the company you're applying to has any rules to follow.
Target, software company SAP, cybersecurity company Zscaler and even the British civil service are among employers that outline do's and don'ts of using AI during recruiting. Acceptable uses generally include formatting resumes, explaining technical concepts and brainstorming, while inappropriate uses include using AI to invent skills, achievements or complete assessments.
The process, from initial application to final interview, should “be an authentic representation of your own skills, experience, and thought process. This principle is especially important in the age of AI,” cloud security firm Zscaler says.
If you've made it through to the interview stage, AI can be a useful tool to help prep for your conversation with a hiring manager.
Chait recommends getting the AI to tell you everything about the company, the industry, the job, the hiring manager, and the best practices of interviewing.
Then, he advises spending an hour or two with the AI, getting it to ask you mock interview questions, which will help make sure that you've got good answers prepared for the real thing.
There are AI tools marketed to job seekers to help them pass remote job interviews and tests, but experts say you should avoid the temptation to use them.
These tools typically are used to listen to the interview questions and provide answers in a window overlaid on the video call. But it's often pretty obvious to the interviewer that you're using them.
Chait said customers have told him of interviews they've done in which the applicant has responded to every single question by saying, “Let me think for a minute,” before replying, making it obvious they were reading off the AI answer.
“You’re not fooling anyone,” he said.
One emerging trend that job seekers should be ready for is the AI-powered interview. More employers are expected to start deploying bots to carry out at least the initial round of interviews, either by text chat, audio call or a video avatar.
While the tech is still in its early days, Chait predicted AI interviews would quickly spread because they allow for a better and fairer interview experience.
“Being comfortable with being screened by a bot first is something that will help give you an edge as a job seeker. It will make you applicable to more jobs,” Chait said.
AI technology is also powering employment scams on both sides of the hiring equation.
Workers should be on the lookout for phony recruitment ads designed to con desperate people. These postings, often shared by email or through text messages, typically say a well-known company is hiring and will ask the recipient to follow a link for more information.
But experts say you should verify that it's a real job by going directly to the hiring company's website or looking on a reputable job board to see if the job is actually posted.
If you click the link, there's a good chance you'll end up talking to a scammer who wants to hire you for a non-existent job. They'll want you to provide identification, a social security number or bank details so they can supposedly put you on the payroll, Chait said.
Employers, meanwhile, are increasing scrutiny for remote hires. They're learning to be wary after some companies unwittingly hired North Koreans as remote IT employees, earning money for Pyongyang.
Job hunters should be prepared for identity verification requests from potential employers, who typically ask an applicant to take a selfie and compare it against their government-issued ID.
LinkedIn also offers a verification service that works either by checking ID or sending a confirmation request to a work email.
Is there a tech topic that you think needs explaining? Write to us at onetechtip@ap.org with your suggestions for future editions of One Tech Tip.
A now hiring sign sits on the side of the road in Garland, Texas, Monday, March 23, 2026. (AP Photo/LM Otero)
U.S. President Donald Trump said Wednesday that a deal to end the Iran war is near, after Tehran dismissed his 15-point ceasefire plan and issued its own sweeping demands to stop fighting as it launched more attacks on Israel and Gulf Arab countries.
Two officials from Pakistan described the 15-point U.S. proposal broadly, saying it included sanctions relief, a rollback of Iran’s nuclear program, limits on missiles and reopening the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world’s oil is normally shipped.
Iran issued its own plan via state TV, which includes a halt to killings of its officials, means to make sure no other war is waged against it, reparations for the war, the end of hostilities, and Iran’s sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz.
“No negotiations have happened with the enemy until now, and we do not plan on any negotiations,” Iran’s foreign minister later told state TV.
Trump insisted at a Republican fundraiser Wednesday night that talks were underway with Iran's leaders.
“They are negotiating, by the way, and they want to make a deal so badly, but they’re afraid to say it because they figure they’ll be killed by their own people,” Trump said.
The death toll from the war has risen to more than 1,500 people in Iran, nearly 1,100 people in Lebanon, 20 in Israel and 13 U.S. military members, as well as a number of civilians on land and sea in the Gulf region. Millions of people in Lebanon and Iran have been displaced.
Here is the latest:
The comment by Sultan al-Jaber, who leads the massive state-run Abu Dhabi National Oil Co., signaled the hardening rhetoric of the United Arab Emirates as the war nears its one-month mark.
“Weaponizing the Strait of Hormuz is not an act of aggression against one nation,” al-Jaber said in a speech for an event hosted by the Middle East Institute in Washington.
“It is economic terrorism against every consumer, every family that depends on affordable energy and food. When Iran holds Hormuz hostage, every nation pays the ransom, at the gas pump, at the grocery store and at the pharmacy. No country can be allowed to destabilize the global economy in this way. Not now. Not ever.”
Sirens sounded about an hour after sunrise across a large swath of central Israel, including areas around Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, and in the occupied West Bank.
Israel’s military said early Thursday morning that Iran had launched missiles toward the country.
The first such alert of the day came after an unusually long lull of more than 14 hours.
Hezbollah rocket fire, however, remained constant overnight in northern Israel, and once reached the Tel Aviv area overnight.
Iran is running a “de facto ‘toll booth’ regime” in Strait of Hormuz, controlling which ships come through and getting payment for their safe passage, a leading shipping intelligence firm said Thursday.
Lloyd’s List Intelligence published an analysis highlighting Iran’s practices through the strait.
It described vessels having to provide manifests, crew details and their destination to Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard.
The information goes to the Guard’s “Hormozgan Provincial Command for sanctions screening, cargo alignment checks that currently prioritizes oil over all other commodities, and for what is described as ‘geopolitical vetting,’” Lloyd’s List said.
“While not all ships are paying a direct toll at least two vessels have and the payment is settled in yuan,” Lloyd’s List said, referring to China’s national currency.
Such payments likely would run afoul of American and European sanctions on the Guard, a key power center within Iran that controls its ballistic missile arsenal and was key in suppressing nationwide protests in January.
Iran has not directly explained the process for ships to go through the strait, though a Foreign Ministry spokesperson appeared to acknowledge Tehran was receiving payments for some ships in an interview.
Fuel prices in Thailand surged Thursday after the government lifted a cap on diesel prices and reduced fuel subsidies.
The majority of fuel types rose by 6 baht ($0.18) per liter.
Diesel prices jumped by about 18%.
The increase is expected to hit the industrial and transportation sectors particularly hard and has raised concerns about a ripple effect on the cost of goods.
Videos and photos shared on social media showed long lines forming at gas stations after the price hike was announced late Wednesday night.
Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said earlier this week the government would allow fuel prices to adjust in line with global market rates, aiming to manage demand following a surge in panic buying.
Australia has temporarily restricted some Iranians from traveling to the country for fear that they would be unwilling or unable to return to their homeland because of the war.
The restrictions apply from Thursday for six months to Iranian Visitor (Subclass 600) visa holders.
These visas have been issued to more than 7,000 Iranians who intend to visit Australia for tourism, business or to see family.
“When you get a sudden conflict like has happened with Iran, who have a large number of people who’ve been issued visas who, if they applied now, would in fact not be eligible,” Immigration Minister Tony Burke told Parliament on Thursday.
Authorities will use the six months to reassess visa applicants. An unknown number will be exempt.
Activists in Iran reported heavy strikes early Thursday morning around Isfahan, a city some 330 kilometers (205 miles) south of Iran’s capital, Tehran.
The pro-reform newspaper Ham Mihan reported online about strikes in the area.
Isfahan is home to a major Iranian air base and other military sites, as well as one of the nuclear sites bombed by the United States during the 12-day war between Israel and Iran in June.
The semiofficial Fars news agency, close to the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, described the attacks as targeting “two residential areas,” without elaborating.
Earlier, Israel’s military said it had completed “a wide-scale wave of strikes” across Iran, including in Isfahan.
A missile alert sounded on mobile phones in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, on Thursday morning.
Saudi Arabia’s Defense Ministry said it intercepted multiple drones over its oil-rich Eastern Province on Thursday morning.
Kuwait reported it was working to intercept incoming Iranian fire early Thursday morning.
Bahrain sounded its missile alert sirens early Thursday morning.
The United Arab Emirates air defenses early Thursday also worked to intercept incoming fire.
U.S. forces have hit more than 10,000 targets so far in the Iran war, the head of the American military’s Central Command said.
U.S. Navy Adm. Brad Cooper made the comments in a video released early Thursday by Central Command.
“If you combine what we’ve accomplished with the success of our Israeli ally, together, we have struck thousands more,” Cooper said. “Our precision strikes have overwhelmed Iranian air defenses and our combat flights are having tangible effects.”
Cooper added that the U.S. has destroyed 92% of “the Iranian navy’s largest vessels.”
“They’ve now lost the ability to meaningly project naval power and influence around the region and around the world,” Cooper said.
Iran maintains its chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf, through drone and missile attacks on shipping, however.
Cooper also said the U.S. has struck over two-thirds of Iran’s munitions plants.
“Today, we have damaged or destroyed over two-thirds of Iran’s missile, drone and naval production facilities and shipyards — and we’re not done yet,” he said. “We are on a path to completely eliminate Iran’s wider military manufacturing apparatus.”
Satellite photos analyzed by The Associated Press, though delayed by two weeks by Planet Labs PBC, have shown Israeli and U.S. strikes targeting shipyards and missile facilities.
Iran has not acknowledged any of its materiel losses through the war.
German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius described the Iran war as an economic “catastrophe” and said Germany did not want to get “sucked into” the conflict.
Pistorius said on Thursday Germany was ready to help secure any peace once that was achieved and appealed for a ceasefire as soon as possible.
“To make it crystal clear, this war is a catastrophe for the world’s economies,” Pistorius told reporters at the Australian Parliament House.
“From the beginning on, we have not been consulted before. Nobody asked us before. It’s not our war and therefore we don’t want to get sucked into that war,” Pistorius added.
Pistorius addressed the media in the national capital Canberra following a meeting with his Australian counterpart Richard Marles.
People take cover in a bomb shelter as air raid sirens warn of incoming Iranian missile strikes in Bnei Brak, Israel, Wednesday, March 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
Smoke and flames rise following an Israeli military strike on a target in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, Wednesday, March, 25, 2026.(AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Members of the displaced Abd el-Hajj family, and two of their cousins, right, who fled Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon, sit inside a tent used as a shelter in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, March 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
Members of a family, who fled Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon, sit around a bonfire outside a tent used as a shelter in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, March 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
Pro-government supporters chant slogans and wave Iranian flags during a rally, in a square in western Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, March 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
