The Week in Jobs: Google's AI Hiring Tool Doesn't Work & 54% Would Take a Pay Cut

Episode notes

A leaked internal memo shows Google's own recruiting team doesn't fully trust the company's AI screening tool. The memo, marked "do not share widely" and shared widely within hours, admits a "non-trivial possibility" that the AI is ignoring or ruling out qualified candidates, and now Google is asking applicants to fill out a separate form so a human can manually review their resume. Pete and Peter dig into why that matters beyond one company: average applications per job jumped from 115 in 2022 to 244 in 2025, which is exactly the volume problem AI screening is supposed to solve. They also cover new SHRM data showing 85% of recruiting leaders expect to increase their use of AI screening, and 63% of job seekers report already being screened or interviewed by AI, up 13 points in six months. One number Pete calls inexcusable: 70% of candidates say they were never told AI was involved in their application. Pete and Peter disagree a bit on how far the technology has come (Pete calls well-built AI screening close to ideal, Peter still calls it a necessary evil), but they agree on one thing: candidates should be told upfront.

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