One recently employed trainee accountant, who didn’t want us to use his real name, told the BBC he’d applied for 50 graduate jobs and used AI in every application. But he says it was only for researching roles, tidying up his CV and generating mock practise questions for video interviews.
While he says he would never use the tech to cheat on assessments he knows people who would.
“I know people who have applied for 100 jobs and after a while they become desperate. If they see everyone else is using AI, they think how can I compete?”
According to the ISE, the graduate market has stabilised after a sharp fall last year but remains tough. Graduate roles currently attract an average of 141 applications each, it says.
And while only 16% of employers it surveyed are using AI to screen candidates, more than half plan to introduce it due to the large volumes of applications they are receiving.
Hollie Moody says EDF does not currently use AI screening but may have to in future.
For her, the use of AI in job applications remains a “moral dilemma” that employers and candidates will continue to grapple with. But she stresses it cannot replace what her firm is looking for in new recruits.
“It’s about authenticity, but also personality. We want diversity of thought in the business.”
Downward revisions and finance and insurance job losses paint a pessimistic picture for the U.S. labor market.
In the last jobs numbers report before a contentious U.S. mid-term election, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported that seasonally adjusted nonfarm payrolls added 29,000 jobs in September, while the unemployment rate remained stable at 4.2%
The BLS also revised its July numbers for a second time, now showing a loss of 10,000 jobs compared to its first revision, which upped the number of jobs created to 21,000 from a loss of 23,000 jobs. It also revised August’s number down to 132,000 from 162,000.
The report may have underwhelmed market expectations, but economists at RBC say that doesn’t mean the labor market is weak.
“The 29,000 payroll gain is quite healthy in the context of our breakeven estimate of 20,000 jobs per month,” they wrote in an RBC Economics note. Gains were broad-based, and the declines more likely reflect retirements than layoffs, especially in sectors with an older workforce (e.g., the median worker age in financial services is 44.2 years compared to 42.1 years overall). Despite a slowdown in health care hiring, strength was driven by the goods sector, which continued to recover from the post–Liberation Day layoffs earlier in 2025.”
Despite the overall positive number, the finance and insurance sector lost 7,000 jobs, with credit intermediation and related activities accounting for 4,600 fewer jobs, followed by insurance carrier and related activities, which lost 2,300 positions.
Employment in the capital markets remained unchanged, with no job gains or losses compared to August.
The information industry took a harder hit than the finance and insurance sector, losing 10,000 jobs. Publishing lost 4,000 jobs, while broadcast and content providers lost 3,000 jobs, and computing infrastructure providers, data processing, and web hosting and related services eliminated 1,600 jobs.
Using a proprietary methodology developed with the Stanford Digital Economy Lab, ADP is far sunnier in its view, estimating that U.S. private employers added 90,000 jobs over the same period, according to its ADP National Employment Report for September.
“It’s a strong report. After a three-month slowdown, job creation rebounded, and pay growth remained solid,” said Nela Richardson, chief economist at ADP, in a prepared statement.
However, the report’s authors have no good news for those working in financial activities, which lost the most jobs (-16,000) of any sector, while professional and business services lost the second-largest amount (-11,000).
The information sector managed to eke out growth, adding 3,000 new positions.
Mid-sized companies (50 to 499 employees) created more than half of the new jobs (54,000). Small companies (1 to 49 employees) added 23,000 new positions, while large companies (more than 500 employees) added the fewest jobs (14,000).
However, not everyone shares the optimism.
The BLS report reflects an economy that has not set itself up for growth, Michele Evermore, a senior fellow at the National Employment Law Project, told Global Finance.
“Nobody was planning to build a manufacturing economy in the United States again,” she said. “Growth was going to come from innovation. If we get rid of the core government research, that is what was going to build jobs of the future, I’m afraid this is par for the course for the foreseeable future until either the AI bubble crashes or AI turns out to be amazing and starts taking over jobs.”
Rob Daly covers fintech and the economy. Contact him at rdaly@gfmag.com.
nazdravie
A federal film and television tax credit could boost U.S. production spending by $125 billion and add more than 143,000 jobs by 2035, according to a new study commissioned by the Motion Picture Assn.
The analysis, released Tuesday morning, is expected to bolster Hollywood’s push for a federal production incentive, which the industry says is necessary to compete with the generous credits offered abroad. Sixty-five nations now offer them, the study said.
The effort has been quietly building for more than a year. It got a major boost last month when President Trump posted on Truth Social backing a proposed credit.
Details are still being worked out,, but the study assumed a transferable credit with a minimum rate of 20% on qualified spending for U.S. resident labor — broadly what industry groups have supported. It also assumed add-ons of 5% for independent production companies and 5% for labor costs in areas the Federal Emergency Management Agency has declared disasters.
If the incentive took effect Jan. 1, 2027, U.S. production spending would reach $277.5 billion through 2035, the study said, compared with $152.2 billion without it.
A coalition that includes the Motion Picture Assn., industry unions, producers’ groups and small production businesses, along with Democratic and Republican lawmakers, is expected to press the case at a virtual news conference Tuesday.
“A federal incentive would be a gamechanger for our industry,” Charles Rivkin, chairman and chief executive of the Motion Picture Assn., said in a statement. “This study tells us that we can bring more opportunities to life for people in all 50 states who bring great stories to life.”