The labor market's surprising bright spot – and how to turn it into a job
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Job listings that mention AI terms are surging, even as the overall labor market looks weak, per new data from the jobs site Indeed.
Why it matters: Everyone's braced for AI to take their jobs, but for now the new technology appears to be an actual bright spot in an otherwise grim labor market — particularly for white-collar professionals.
How it works: Indeed analyzes its job postings for mentions of AI-related keywords like "artificial intelligence," "large language models" and "ChatGPT."
- Those listings are up 134% since February 2020, when the site first began tracking. Overall job postings are only 6% above that pre-pandemic baseline.
By the numbers: AI job postings made up 4.2% of overall postings by the end of 2025, up from 1.9% two years ago.
- Put another way: Around 1 in 25 job listings now reference AI.
Zoom in: The increase in listings that mention AI isn't just happening in tech-centric jobs — it's across every occupational sector, from sales and accounting to banking and marketing.
- The trend is most prevalent in white-collar work.
Between the lines: Just because a job posting mentions AI, doesn't mean the job actually involves much work with the new technology.
- About a quarter of these jobs mention it in a performative way, per Indeed research from last year.
- Listings say things like "we are an AI-first company" or "familiarity with AI" is wanted.
- "Employers are clearly signaling that they're interested in what AI can do," says Cory Stahle, an economist at Indeed's Hiring Lab. "But a lot don't necessarily know what they want to do with AI."
The big picture: The job market, it turns out, is behaving a lot like the rest of the economy — which has become increasingly dependent on AI for growth.
Yes, but: Could it be that AI is also the culprit behind the overall slowdown in the job market? Many economists, including Indeed's Stahle, say no.
- The weak labor market appears to be more a result of the Federal Reserve's moves to raise interest rates in 2022 and 2023 — Indeed's data shows listings starting to fall in March 2022 before the release of ChatGPT.
- Still, it's also the case that some companies are holding back on hiring as they look to adopt a new and potentially labor-saving technology, as Axios' Neil Irwin and Courtenay Brown recently wrote.
The bottom line: If you're looking for a job, it's a good time to put some AI keywords in your résumé.
