‘Who wants to be hired’ now outnumbers ‘Who is hiring’

For the first time since 2014, job-seeker comments on Hacker News exceed hiring comments.

Every month Hacker News runs two job threads: job postings go in “Ask HN: Who is hiring?” and resumes in “Who wants to be hired?”.

For the first time since 2014 there are more people seeking jobs than job postings.

The drop started after the Fed increased its rates, not because of AI. However, after the Fed started to decrease its rates, we don’t see jobs rebounding. Was the last flip influenced by AI? Who knows.

Averaged over January–July, 2021 had 961 hiring comments a month against 219 from seekers. In 2026 it’s 488 against 502. The flip came in May and widened every month since.

The threads are as busy as they ever were. But in 2021 one comment in five came from a job seeker, and this year it’s every second one.

Some people say AI has no impact on jobs yet. Maybe. But the numbers are not positive.

Data and code · counts from the monthly Hacker News threads via HN Algolia, January 2019 – July 2026.