This year, recruitment stocks have emerged as the most significant gainers in the realm of AI applications.

Among the 13 global listed recruitment service companies tracked by Meridian Capital, eight are traded in the US. By the end of August, these eight companies had witnessed an average year-to-date increase of approximately 85%, with a median rise nearing 94%, effectively doubling their values collectively.

Over the past two years, recruitment companies have been among the least favored in the capital markets, owing to a combination of cyclical downturns and the perception that AI would replace recruiters. From 2024 to 2025, these eight recruitment stocks experienced an average cumulative decline of about 48%.

Of course, this resurgence owes much to the economic cycle—the US employment market has picked up, and recruitment companies, known for their high operational leverage, have seen their profits and stock prices soar once revenues rebounded.

However, the cycle only tells half the story. The other half is precisely AI.

On one hand, AI automates a vast amount of standardized work, reducing delivery costs; on the other hand, it renders public resumes increasingly unreliable, making data verified by actual recruitment outcomes even more scarce and valuable.

In other words, AI not only diminishes the value of 'human labor' but also elevates the worth of 'efficiency' and 'authentic data'.

This year, Silicon-Based Insights will delve into how recruitment stocks have 'staged a comeback' in the AI era.

/ 01 / In the AI Era, Recruitment Companies Suddenly Gain More Value

Many may not realize that traditional human recruitment is a classic labor-intensive industry. The more clients and positions a company handles, the more screeners, communicators, verifiers, and follow-up staff it requires.

For a single position, hundreds of resumes may be received. Recruitment consultants traditionally screen them, contact candidates individually, confirm their intentions, ask basic questions, and arrange interviews. These repetitive tasks were once exclusively performed by humans.

Now, AI has significantly reduced recruitment companies' labor costs.

Adecco's approach this year has been particularly bold. It has directly entrusted standardized processes such as candidate pre-screening, talent pool management, interview scheduling, and onboarding to AI Agents.

As of June this year, Adecco's AI Agents had completed over 1.2 million candidate interactions, including 250,000 full AI interviews, covering approximately 50,000 positions.

More intriguingly, over 60% of these interactions occurred outside regular office hours.

AI doesn't adhere to a 9-to-5 schedule.

Businesses that once relied on expanding their workforce now scale through AI Agents. According to Adecco's disclosures, this system has halved recruitment delivery times.

By the second quarter, about 50% of Adecco's revenue came from business processes involving or supported by AI Agents. During the same period, the company's revenue grew 6.6% year-over-year, while its workforce shrank by 2%, and its selling, general, and administrative expenses decreased from 16.5% to 15.9%.

Beyond efficiency, AI's other value lies in data.

The reason is straightforward: AI makes resumes easier to fabricate—and harder to trust.

Current AI technology can batch-modify keywords, package experiences, and generate application materials tailored to different positions. Consequently, resumes received by companies appear increasingly 'tailored,' but their authenticity becomes more challenging to assess.

A Robert Half survey of over 2,000 US hiring managers revealed that 65% believed AI-optimized resumes made it harder to verify candidates' skills, 67% said AI-generated applications slowed down the recruitment process, and 84% of HR teams faced heavier workloads as a result.

Robert Half itself provided an example involving a senior accounting position:

At first glance, several candidates' resumes listed similar financial reporting and month-end closing experiences, with little apparent difference. However, upon further questioning, it emerged that some had only participated in the process, while others had truly overseen it from start to finish.

This is where recruitment companies' years of accumulated data become invaluable.

Take Robert Half, which boasts over 28 million talent profiles. When matching candidates, it doesn't merely rely on resumes and keywords but also considers whether candidates have successfully onboarded in the past, their job performance, historical interactions with recruitment consultants, and pre-interview and onboarding review results.

Combined, AI's value to the recruitment industry becomes evident.

On one hand, AI automates a vast amount of standardized work, reducing delivery costs; on the other hand, it renders public resumes increasingly unreliable, making data verified by actual recruitment outcomes even more scarce.

/ 02 / Why Is BOSS Zhipin the Exception Amid the Collective Surge of Recruitment Stocks?

While US recruitment stocks have doubled collectively, BOSS Zhipin, a representative of Chinese recruitment stocks, has exhibited a much more subdued stock performance.

BOSS Zhipin's Hong Kong stock was priced around HK$78.5 in late 2025 and had fallen to HK$71 by the end of August this year, still down nearly 10% year-to-date.

After its earnings release on August 25, the stock rebounded more than 20% in two days. However, compared to the doubling of Manpower, Kelly, and TrueBlue, it still lags far behind.

What explains this discrepancy?

The first reason is the economic cycle.

Traditional human resources giants like Manpower and Adecco derive a significant portion of their revenue from temporary and flexible staffing.

Take Manpower: In 2025, temporary and contract staffing contributed 88.4% of its revenue, while permanent placement accounted for only 2.5%.

This revenue structure makes them highly sensitive to macroeconomic employment cycles.

And indeed, temporary staffing in the US has recovered first.

US Labor Department data is revealing: The number of people employed in temporary help services rose from 2.47 million in January to 2.505 million in July. Meanwhile, the number of Americans working full-time fell from 134.4 million to 133.6 million, a drop of nearly 900,000.

Recruitment companies are also a sector with particularly high operational leverage, so once revenues rebound, the elasticity in profits and stock prices becomes exaggerated.

AMN Healthcare exemplifies this even more starkly. In the second quarter of this year, AMN's revenue grew only 2% year-over-year, but its adjusted EBITDA grew 26%, and its adjusted EPS soared 158%.

Beyond the cycle, another difference lies in AI monetization capabilities.

In the second quarter of this year, the number of jobs posted on the online recruitment platform Indeed in the US fell about 4% year-over-year. But its US revenue grew 30% to a record $1.64 billion.

Jobs down 4%, revenue up 30%. What filled the gap?

ARPJ—average revenue per job—increased by 35%.

The company itself disclosed: The most significant driver of ARPJ's surge was AI creating higher value, leading clients to spend more.

Its representative product is Premium Sponsored Jobs. Indeed began testing this product in late 2024 and officially launched it in 2025. Compared to the Standard package, which mainly sells exposure, Premium is more expensive but directly uses AI to screen matching candidates, proactively invites applications, and provides more prominent display positions. Hundreds of thousands of employers now use this product.

In contrast, while BOSS Zhipin has also made numerous AI deployments, its AI-related revenue remains at a relatively low level. In the first quarter, BOSS Zhipin's revenue from AI-facilitated closed-loop services was about RMB 50 million, still a small fraction of its overall revenue.

/ 03 / Conclusion

Looking back, what AI has truly transformed is the value distribution across the recruitment industry.

Standardized processes like resume screening, candidate ranking, and interview scheduling are rapidly depreciating in value, while those highly tied to outcomes—such as verifying authenticity and improving match success rates—are becoming increasingly scarce and valuable.

The value in the recruitment industry is shifting from 'processing information' to 'being accountable for results.' The closer one is to the final outcome, the more valuable one becomes.

By Yuan Yuan