Recruiters are setting the record straight: candidates are not getting rejected because of automation, but because of the high volume of applications they receive recently.

This is according to new research from Enhancv, which interviewed 25 recruiters in the United States who use Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS).

The research debunked claims online alleging that the majority of CVs are getting automatically rejected by ATS even before a human recruiter personally looks at them.

"The culprit isn't software, but scale—the sheer volume of applications that no one can realistically read," the report read.

Volume of applications blamed

According to the recruiters, roles in customer service, software development, sales, healthcare, and marketing can get up to thousands of applicants within a few days.

"There are a lot of positions where I get 2,000 applicants—those software development engineers," one recruiter said in the report.

Entry-level and administrative roles attract an average of 400 to 600 applications per opening, according to the report.

Customer service and remote support positions get 1,000 applications in their first week, while tech and engineering jobs receive more than 2,000 applications before the screening begins.

Recruiters said they don't have time to go through and review up to thousands of applications for a role, saying they stop after having a strong shortlist.

"The pattern is clear: it's not the ATS thinning the pile—it's the pile itself," the report read.

The sheer volume of job applicants recently has been pinned on the rise of AI-assisted CVs, according to separate research from AI Resume Builder, where 20% of hiring managers believe half of the applications they receive are created with AI.

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