In a striking sign of a challenging labour market, job seekers in the United States are increasingly turning to dating applications to network and secure interviews, blurring the lines between personal and professional connections.
Survey Reveals Widespread Trend
A recent survey conducted in October by Resume Builder has quantified this unusual shift. It found that 34 percent of respondents had used dating apps for job or career-related purposes within the past year. Among those who did, the strategy proved effective for many: 39 percent secured an interview and 37 percent received a job offer.
The data indicates that a difficult employment landscape is a primary motivator, with 42 percent of job-seeking dating app users citing the tough market. Stacie Haller, Resume Builder’s Chief Career Advisor, explained the appeal. She noted that younger professionals, in particular, feel intense pressure in a hypercompetitive environment where traditional platforms like LinkedIn can seem oversaturated and transactional.
“Dating apps, in contrast, provide a more personal and low-pressure environment for building authentic relationships,” Haller stated in the survey results released on Tuesday 30 December 2025.
Personal Stories from the Frontline
A Bloomberg report has put faces to the statistics, profiling individuals navigating this new networking frontier. Tiffany Chau, a 20-year-old junior at the California College of the Arts, used Hinge this autumn to hunt for a summer internship in product-design.
“I feel like my approach to the dating apps is it being another networking platform like everything else, like Instagram or LinkedIn,” Chau told Bloomberg. Her initiative paid off, connecting her with someone who provided valuable tips from a recent interview at the consulting giant Accenture.
On the other side of the trend is Alex Xiao, an 18-year-old freshman studying analytics at the University of California, Berkeley. As a director at Ditto AI, a dating app startup for students, he has been matched with multiple users seeking career advice—some even boldly asking him for a job directly.
“A lot of connection in general just boils down to: ‘how can you help me further my career?’” Xiao observed to Bloomberg, highlighting the pragmatic shift in how some are using these platforms.
The Economic Backdrop Driving Change
This unconventional job-hunting method emerges against a backdrop of persistent economic pressure. According to the latest government data from the Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, the national unemployment rate stood at 4.6 percent in November.
The situation is markedly worse for younger adults; the unemployment rate for those aged 20 to 24 was significantly higher at 8.3 percent. This disparity helps explain the desperation and innovation seen among younger job seekers, for whom traditional avenues may feel blocked or insufficient.
While the trend may frustrate singles looking for romance, it underscores the lengths to which professionals are now willing to go to forge career opportunities in a tight market, repurposing tools designed for social connection into vital instruments for economic survival.
