AI Is Screening Your Social Media Before Interviews

Additional Resources

• DOL’s Unemployment Insurance Weekly Claims
• Employers Turn to AI to Screen Candidates’ Socials

Transcript

Pete Newsome: 0:00

Welcome back to Cornering the Job Market. Today’s Thursday, February 12th. I’m Pete Newsome, and today’s workforce news and headlines include a surprising new way that employers are evaluating candidates before deciding whether to interview them. But first, we have new unemployment claims data from the Department of Labor. And I also wanted to talk about something that’s been bothering me since yesterday’s jobs report came out, but we’ll talk about that in a minute. Let’s start with this morning. Weekly jobless claims came in at 227,000, which is down 5,000 from last week. That sounds like an improvement. And it is, but the four-week moving average actually went up to 219,500. And I know that sounds contradictory, but if you look at the chart, you can see what’s going on. The moving average looks at the last four weeks. Last week’s number replaced a much lower number from four weeks ago that has now dropped off. So even though claims fell this week, the number coming in is a lot higher than the one falling out. The headline says things are better, but the trend says things have gotten worse than they were a month ago. And that’s what I focus on. It’s not just about a point in time or a snapshot, it’s about what’s happening directionally. And well, it’s not a good trend.

1:27

Now, if that sounds strange to you, it does to me too. Construction really shouldn’t be a part of that because construction is booming right now. That is one of the very small handful of industries that’s going well. So I was surprised by that number, but that is what the data shows, believe it or not, from the Department of Labor. Yes, there’s reason to be skeptical of what we see from many government data. But I’m just reading what it’s telling us, and I will let you know when I scratch my head, which I often do when I see these numbers. So definitely about the seeing the construction in there as a reason for increased unemployment claims. Now, here’s what I really want to get into. Yesterday the BLS released a January jobs report. I talked about that extensively. And what I saw in the report was that the big story was the revision from last year. It was down almost to almost 400,000 jobs from what was reported in 2025. And everyone acted on that information. Everyone, you know, uh thought that that is just where we were. But where we were was significantly less. And so job seekers had an increasingly difficult time as the year went on, and they were wondering why. We see lots of claims that things are going well in the job market when the opposite is true.

2:59

CNBC, their headline said payrolls rose by 130,000, more than expected. CNN’s stronger than expected, 130,000 jobs, Fox Business, solid growth, Bloomberg beating estimates. One strategist called it unambiguously good news. So, yes, 130,000 new jobs in January. Again, if we can believe it, that is good news. The estimate was around 70,000 jobs, so big win on paper. And in theory, but every one of those outlets buried the real headlines, paragraphs deep into their stories. When the BLS applied its annual revision, so the full calendar year, which is what they put in, you know, I always say it’s a fine print. It’s the same size print, it’s just at the bottom of the press release they put out. But when they published that, 2025 went from 584,000 total jobs created, which is still not great, by the way, far from it, down to 181,000. That is not a slight adjustment. That’s two-thirds of the jobs we thought were created that never actually existed. Monthly averages dropped from 49,000 to 15,000. I mean, 15,000 is dismal to say the least. And the back half of the year was essentially flat to negative. Every single month of 2025 was revised downward. And that’s on top of a huge revision that came out uh already last year. So it’s just it is the story, and it was buried. And so we already knew that some of the data was overstated, like I said, but um this is just I don’t get it. I I don’t know why these news stations aren’t telling everyone what we really need to hear, which is the true story, the full story, not just the headline. So that’s been bothering me. It should bother you too. It should bother anyone who hears this because we can’t operate without factual information. Or we just get to the point where we disregard it altogether.

5:00

And I’m quickly getting to that, I’m quickly arriving at that point. I’m sure I’m not alone in that, but I promise you that as long as I continue to do this, I will give you the full story on what’s going on and not bury the lead like has happened apparently with every major outlet yesterday. So, all right, it’s off my chest now. We can move on. Now, if you are a job seeker and if you were wondering why you weren’t getting more interview requests last year, and I see that a lot, it may have not been your resume, it may have not been your experience, um, it may be something altogether different. AI is now being used to scan social media and score uh for can’t for companies before they’re ever deciding whether to interview a candidate. And I don’t think many people realize what’s going on. And I’ll just say, when I look at social media posts by a lot of people who are complaining about the job market, I’m telling you right now, that’s a reason that is that it’s limiting your potential to get called in for an interview, it’s it’s limiting your potential to be considered for a job, even if you’re otherwise qualified. Because whether you think this should be the case or not, companies avoid hiring people who don’t represent themselves well on social media by whatever definition they have. So just know that that’s a thing. But that’s been done forever by humans, uh, recruiters and hiring managers. That’s not new. But now it’s being done at scale with AI. According to new analysis from employment law firm Fisher Phillips, about 70% of employers screen candidates social media. Again, that’s not new.

6:44

What’s new is the growing use of AI tools that automate the whole thing. So these platforms scan public posts, analyze language, and generate personality predictions around things like teamwork, leadership, and adaptability. So, look, the appeal for employers is obvious. They get faster, deeper insights beyond what a resume will show, and they can do it now without a human. Although the problems with this are real, and that’s why a law firm is the one putting this story out. AI can misread sarcasm, slang, and cultural context. It can surface information about religion, disability, age, or political views, which of course are things that should never factor into a hiring decision. And the problem really is once that’s in the report, it can be tied back to the employer. So there’s all kinds of legal ramifications of this. Uh, Fisher Phillips warns it the legal exposure is growing quickly, and they recommend companies use what they call a firewall approach, which keeps whoever reviews the social media completely separate from whoever makes the hiring decision.

7:50

Okay, I yes, that’s what they should do if you’re using AI to screen that way, but do you really think that’s going to happen? I mean, uh there’s already lots of lawsuits around AI discrimination and um how it’s interpreting resumes and applications and applying bias. I mean, that’s not news. But I what I see that companies are supposed to keep these, you know, these um you know the the this firewall you know separate, whoever’s reading social media don’t share with the people who are hiring. I mean, what’s the point of doing it uh if you’re gonna take that approach? So this is something that that’s happening. They say recent um lawsuit involving AI screening company Eightfold uh is a is something to point to as a way to take it seriously. So Eightfold, I won’t talk about that in detail now, but that lawsuit has been widely publicized, and a lot of people are pointing to that as you know a determining factor and how AI should be used going forward for screening. So again, this isn’t new.

8:49

This has happened, and I have always told candidates if you’re someone who likes to post very opinionated things, controversial things on social media, fine, do it. But during your job search, consider making all your accounts private because whether you want it to happen or not, people are looking, and now the robots are looking too, apparently. So just tread really carefully if you’re a job seeker and just shut down your social media for the time being, at the very least, it will help. I know that with absolute certainty. So those are the headlines today. Kind of a light news day. Thanks for letting me get uh get it off my chest. How frustrated I am with not just the government reporting, but the lack of the way it’s being covered by the major outlets that are relied on for news. It just uh just pisses me off. So that’s it for today. But before we go, here’s your fun fact office pets can lower stress levels and increase social interaction among employees. I love having office pets. I used to bring my dog to the office all the time before we went remote, and everyone loved having her there. At least they said they did. I don’t know, I was a boss, maybe, maybe they lied.

10:00

But I think everyone genuinely loved having the dog there, and it just elevated the mood, right? Who doesn’t love I know not everyone loves dogs, but if you do, they’re better to have around. And I have two chairs behind me, neither one of my dogs were in in here right now, one’s on the floor next to me, but um, I’m a fan, needless to say. So the fact that it lowers my stress levels, well, that’s a good thing, too. So that is it for today. Thank you for watching. Please like, subscribe, share with anyone you think might be interested. I welcome your feedback as always. If there’s stuff I’m not covering you’d like to hear more about, by all means let me know. You can tell I like to ramble, so I’m happy to do it. And I look forward to talking to you tomorrow.