Tinder tops list for job seekers turning to dating apps amid tough job market

While Singapore’s fresh graduates are turning to building businesses as they struggle to find jobs, job seekers from the US are turning to dating apps to look for professional connections instead of romance amid a tough job market. According to a ResumeBuilder.com survey of about 2,200 US dating site users in October, Tinder (72.7%) has topped the list of dating apps used by job seekers for career and networking purposes.

Other dating sites in the top five that job seekers use include Bumble (54.8%), Facebook Dating (48.9%), Hinge (43.1%), and Match (38.9%).

The survey found that about a third of respondents said they had sought matches specifically for job-related opportunities, while two-thirds targeted people working at desirable companies. Meanwhile, three-quarters said they matched with those in roles they wanted, as reported by The Edge Singapore.

Notably, nearly half of these users had incomes above US$200,000 (S$256,983), suggesting they are senior professionals who are turning to dating apps to expand their networks and make connections, said ResumeBuilder.com’s chief career adviser, Stacie Haller.

While some have landed short-term gigs, like a make-up artist from Los Angeles who landed a one-day social media gig after a Hinge match requested her portfolio, others said it was “one more method that wasn’t working.”

An expert said using dating apps for job hunting is unlikely to become mainstream and will probably remain something only a small group of users experiment with.

Meanwhile, Constance Hadley, a research associate professor at Boston University, said, “In times of great uncertainty, when people’s jobs are threatened, people will do whatever it takes to survive.” /TISG

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