In July 2025, Japanese HR services giant Recruit Holdings announced a sweeping reorganization of its HR technology division, cutting approximately 1,300 jobs, or 6% of the department’s global workforce. The restructuring directly impacts its flagship platforms Indeed and Glassdoor, with the latter set to be formally integrated into Indeed. Glassdoor’s CEO has confirmed plans to step down by October, signaling the end of its era as an independent brand.

In an internal memo, Recruit CEO — who also serves as CEO of Indeed — Hisayuki "Deko" Idekoba stated: "AI is transforming the world. We must adapt and ensure our products deliver truly exceptional experiences for our users."

This marks the third major layoff at Recruit’s HR tech unit since 2023. Over the past three years, Indeed alone has cut more than 4,000 jobs — 2,200 in 2023, 1,000 in 2024, and 1,300 in this latest round — impacting teams across product, marketing, HR, and engineering globally. But these cuts are not an isolated incident; they are symptomatic of a broader and deeper disruption rippling through the U.S. recruiting technology sector.

A Collective Retrenchment: Traditional Recruitment Models Under Pressure

Beyond Indeed, other prominent job platforms are also facing existential challenges. On June 24, 2025, Zen JV, LLC — the parent company of CareerBuilder and Monster Worldwide — filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Delaware, along with nine subsidiaries. This development effectively signals the formal demise of two of North America's most iconic recruitment brands.

The bankruptcy filing covers 10 entities, including CareerBuilder France, Monster Government Solutions, FastWeb, and Luceo Solutions. According to court documents, Zen JV holds over $500 million in liabilities, primarily from long-term obligations like marketing, tech services, and legal fees. In contrast, the company’s total assets are estimated at under $100 million.

Alarmingly, the group has acknowledged its inability to repay unsecured creditors, stating it can only meet administrative costs during restructuring. This is not just a financial collapse — it’s a stark illustration of the dual pressures of AI-driven disruption and outdated business models converging to force legacy recruitment platforms out of relevance.

In June, DHI Group, parent company of tech job site DICE, also announced layoffs of around 100 employees — more than 30% of its total staff. Even surviving public companies like ZipRecruiter are not immune to the pressure. Since its IPO peak at over $24 per share in 2021, ZipRecruiter's stock has plunged to below $12 as of July 2025, shedding more than half its market value. Its 2024 annual report revealed an 8% year-over-year revenue decline, with two consecutive quarters of negative net income.

Large staffing firms such as Randstad, Robert Half, and ManpowerGroup have also revised revenue forecasts downward from late 2024 into 2025. Notably, Robert Half cut nearly 10% of its internal recruiting staff and stated in its Q1 2025 report that “white-collar hiring demand remains volatile and subdued.”

White-Collar Weakness vs. Blue-Collar Resilience

The contraction of recruitment platforms aligns with a broader decline in white-collar job demand. According to the ADP National Employment Report for June 2025, the U.S. private sector shed 33,000 jobs, one of the worst monthly drops in the past year. The steepest losses occurred in information, finance, education, and professional services — all traditionally white-collar sectors.

By contrast, blue-collar roles continue to show signs of relative resilience. In June alone, manufacturing added 15,000 jobs, construction added 9,000, and transportation and warehousing remained stable or saw slight gains. Data from Revelio Labs supports this trend: as of Q1 2025, white-collar job postings declined 12.7% year-over-year, while blue-collar postings dropped by a lesser 11.6%.

This divergence suggests the job market itself is not shrinking uniformly; rather, the high-dependency, mid-to-upper-tier white-collar segment that job platforms historically relied on is undergoing structural shifts. Meanwhile, SMBs, manufacturers, and localized service companies are increasingly turning to private sourcing channels or AI systems, bypassing traditional platforms entirely.

AI Disrupts the Funnel: The Power of the Recruiting Gateway is Shifting

The most disruptive force, however, is AI’s end-to-end automation of the hiring process. Platforms like Paradox.ai have automated resume screening, candidate communication, and interview scheduling — helping employers reduce time-to-hire by 5 to 7 days while significantly lowering manual costs. SmartRecruiters launched its Winston platform in early 2025, offering a fully automated hiring workflow — from job description generation and candidate matching to interview coordination and offers — all without human input.

Even Shopify's hiring policy reflects this paradigm shift: Managers must prove that a task cannot be done by AI before adding headcount. This “AI-first” hiring philosophy is rapidly gaining traction among tech giants, distributed teams, and startups alike.

This shift is fundamentally challenging traditional recruitment platforms. If AI systems can internally manage sourcing, engagement, and selection, do employers still need intermediaries like Indeed, Monster, or CareerBuilder?

AI-Native Sourcing Platforms are Redefining the Hiring Frontline

Unlike traditional job boards, AI-native sourcing platforms like HireEZ are bypassing the job-posting model altogether. Their strategy combines talent intelligence graphs, proactive recommendations, and multichannel outreach, positioning them at the very front of the talent acquisition pipeline.

HireEZ’s latest Agentic AI offering can auto-generate job descriptions, candidate personas, and dynamically search through a global database of over 800 million profiles, reaching candidates directly via email, LinkedIn, GitHub, and other platforms.

The key advantage: These tools don’t rely on "post and wait" models. They find talent, engage them, and drive conversion — actively. This is particularly effective in high-demand, low-supply roles such as engineering, sales, and healthcare.

HireEZ is not alone. Startups like Entelo, SeekOut, Findem, and Fetcher are building agentic AI systems that aim to shift the hiring entry point from job ads to automated search + follow-up + insights — creating a new closed-loop recruiting model.

The message is clear: Companies don’t need job boards if they can directly find and convert talent using smarter tools.

The Revaluation of Platforms: From Traffic Engines to Data Infrastructure

For two decades, recruitment platforms thrived on a job ad + resume traffic model. But those days are fading. Employers no longer need to buy exposure or rely on third-party filters.

With AI-led recruiting and internal automation on the rise, platform value is shifting from “traffic aggregation” to “data intelligence and workflow orchestration.” Recruit’s decision to merge Glassdoor into Indeed reflects this pivot — a move to consolidate resources and build an integrated AI hiring engine, merging brand, tech, and user behavior data into a unified growth strategy.

Platforms that fail to become recruiting operating systems, or to establish deep industry-specific AI moats, risk being replaced by nimble SaaS tools and autonomous agents.

The Future of Recruiting Gateways Will Be Defined by AI

At first glance, the recent wave of layoffs may appear to be a reaction to cyclical downturns. But beneath the surface lies a more profound shift: the control point of recruiting is moving — from platforms to AI, from traffic to systems, and from advertising to intelligence.

White-collar hiring is moving toward automation and intelligence, while blue-collar hiring is trending back to localization and direct outreach. The intermediary role of traditional platforms is being dismantled — replaced by engines of workflow and intelligent interaction.

AI will not eliminate recruitment as a function. But it will displace platforms that lack AI capability or fail to reinvent their value proposition.