A new Robert Half survey finds 46% of U.S. workers plan to job hunt in the next six months, with AI generated applications adding a fresh layer of competition.
The résumé Amy Reyes sent to her first job in 2014 was a single page in a Word document. By the time she started looking again in March 2026, she was running every draft through an AI assistant, then rewriting the output to sound like herself. "I wanted the polish, but I didn't want to lose my voice," Reyes said. She landed a senior operations role in May after eight weeks of applications and three rounds of interviews. Her experience matches a finding the staffing firm Robert Half flagged in a survey released June 15, 2026: 46 percent of U.S. professionals say AI-generated application materials have intensified competition and made it harder to stand out.
The same survey, drawn from more than 2,000 U.S. professionals, found that 46 percent of workers plan to look for a new job in the next six months, up from 38 percent in the first half of 2026 and 27 percent a year earlier, according to Robert Half's own comparison. Gen Z workers are the most likely to explore new opportunities, at 55 percent. By sector, healthcare (56 percent) and technology (49 percent) workers lead the pack.
The overlap is the point. The workers about to re-enter the market are walking into it at the same moment their peers are using AI to apply to more jobs, faster. Robert Half's operational president Dawn Fay told the firm that AI has made applications "polished, but sometimes less accurate or distinctive." That critique now runs through every stage of the hiring funnel.
Recruiters describe the result as a signal problem. Application volume at mid-size companies is up sharply compared with 2024, but the share of candidates who clear an initial screen is flat or down, according to several HR leaders who spoke on background because they were not authorized to discuss internal data. Hiring managers say they have started weighting portfolio links, work-sample tests, and short video responses more heavily, because written résumés no longer separate strong candidates from weak ones.
The 46 percent job-search number is also a window into why people are moving. Top motivations in the Robert Half survey: better benefits and perks (47 percent), career advancement (43 percent), remote work (39 percent), higher salary (35 percent), and burnout (26 percent). The list puts money in the middle of the pack, not the top, a shift from the salary-first frames common in earlier surveys.
For workers, the practical read is that the rules of search have changed but the basics have not. Specificity still wins. A portfolio link tied to the role beats a generic "skills" list. Video introductions and short work samples now carry weight that bullet points used to. And the candidates who land offers in 2026 are often the ones who treat AI as a drafting tool rather than a ghostwriter, keeping their own voice on the page.
Robert Half frames the rise in job-search intent against "several years of market uncertainty and cautious job search activity." The firm's survey is a single source, and the 38 percent and 27 percent comparisons are Robert Half's own self-reported figures, not an independent time series. The labor-market direction can be tested against separate data on quits, job cuts, and postings, and against the next round of hiring reports.
Reyes, for her part, is already hearing it from friends still searching. "They send 80 applications and hear nothing back," she said. "I sent 30 and heard back. I don't know if it was luck or the portfolio, but I know the bar moved."