Seattle small-business owners say they are drowning in sleek, AI-polished résumés that look great on screen but make it tougher to spot who can actually do the job. Inboxes are filling up, vetting is getting slower and more complicated, and hiring cycles are stretching out even as many of these companies still plan to grow. The gripe is not just anecdotal, either, with national surveys and local conversations starting to converge on the same headache: hiring in the age of artificial intelligence.
According to a report by Robert Half, a survey of more than 250 U.S. small-business leaders found that 76% are confident about their hiring outlook for the year ahead. At the same time, 47% said finding skilled talent is harder than a year ago, only 12% said they have the talent on staff to complete high-priority projects, and 54% said AI-generated applications have made hiring more difficult.
Local media have been digging into the issue as well. KOMO’s ARC Seattle recently brought on Robert Half district president Josh Warborg to break down what this looks like for small employers. The segment underscored how the rapid spread of AI tools is reshaping how people apply for jobs and how recruiters sort through that flood of applications…