Navigating Layoffs: Tips for Resilient Job Searching
The average length of a job title has jumped from 2.4 words in 2013 to four words last year, according to an analysis of job listings from HR software company BambooHR, which found that lengthy, highly specific, niche roles were driving up the character count. Hiring platform [Greenhouse](/companies/greenhouse) found that the average job description character count has increased 7.4% from 2022 to 2026 — the four years since ChatGPT became widely available. Over the same period, the number of sections in a job listing grew by nearly 14% and skills sections jumped by almost 16%. Indeed found that the number of words in a post grew 14.3% from 2021 to 2025. [...] Many companies now prioritize skills-based hiring, weighing practical abilities over prestigious degrees and experience at top-tier companies. This shift has also led the skills sections of job listings to swell. "To match a job to talent or talent to a job, they're putting as much information into that job post as possible" to help AI match the skills listed on a résumé to those in a job post, Tara Marcelle, vice president of recruiting for staffing firm Manpower's US operations, says. "It can really help to rank those candidates." [...] What's puffing up the ever-expanding job description? What else: AI. In some, hiring managers have layered new AI proficiency and pedagogy expectations on top of standard job tasks. Other listings, recruiters tell me, have inflated because hiring managers generated them with long-winded LLMs. "Managers don't have to edit themselves, so they're just dumping the kitchen sink in there," Marc Cenedella, CEO of career site Ladders, says. "They're dumping in nice-to-haves, could-haves, and passing thoughts they had in the shower this morning." The descriptions balloon with input from people without direct oversight over the role, and there's no benefits to applicants or recruiters, he says.