Why people are flirting on LinkedIn — and job hunting on Tinder

The internet has solved a lot of information problems, with a simple online search offering advice on everything from how to do laundry or change a tire to how to file taxes or use credit cards. But there are still two major problems the online world can’t easily teach, only match: finding work and finding love.

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LinkedIn has grown into an agora for over a billion career-hungry professionals around the world, as well as a major revenue engine for Microsoft. Dating apps, meanwhile, are still raking in cash despite signs of stalled growth: in the third quarter of 2025, Tinder ranked as the seventh-highest-grossing app in the US, Sensor Tower data shows, outpacing streaming giants like Disney+ and Paramount+.

What’s interesting, however, is that job sites and dating platforms no longer seem to be staying neatly in their lanes.

Over the past year, Google search volumes for “linkedin for dating” have surged more than 8x, alongside rising interest in using dating apps “for work.” Searches for “hinge for work,” “bumble for work,” and “tinder for work” have also roughly tripled.

It’s difficult to reliably measure how many LinkedIn members are actually logging in to the platform for romantic purposes. Stalking someone’s profile before you meet them for a date certainly isn’t a professional use, but it’s also not the same as posting, “I’m looking for love, would anyone like to date me?”

Nevertheless, recent studies suggest it might be more than just curiosity. In a 2024 DatingNews.com survey of 505 US adults aged 20 to 40, more than half (52%) of respondents said they had gone on a date through networking platforms like LinkedIn. That number feels absurdly high, but, even taken with a large pinch of salt, there’s clearly a nontrivial number of people using the site in ways it wasn’t designed for.

Indeed, a 2023 report found that 91% of over 1,000 female LinkedIn users had “received romantic advances or inappropriate messages at least once” — suggesting much of the flirting on the platform is unsolicited and unwanted, echoing many anecdotal reports of unprofessional DMs and flirtatious follow-ups.

Swipe right for jobs

So why are people turning a job platform into a dating venue in the first place? Part of the answer may lie with dating apps themselves. Per Forbes Health, 78% of dating app users have at least sometimes felt burnout, with the biggest reasons being the inability to find genuine connection, followed by disappointment from being ghosted or lied to. The most common lies, the study found, involved age, income, and employment.

LinkedIn, apparently, seems to be one way to fill that gap — while jaded dating app users are finding a new use for swiping right. According to a November survey of US dating app users by Resume Builder, more than a third (34%) said they had used the platforms for professional or career purposes, such as expanding their network or finding job opportunities.

That behavior shows up most strongly on some of the country’s biggest dating platforms: some 73% of Tinder users said they had used the app for career-related reasons, followed by 55% on Bumble and 43% on Hinge. Most users framed it as a “creative” or “strategic” workaround, perhaps hoping that a new connection could help them get hired in a tougher job market.

In November, US job openings fell to their lowest level in more than a year, resulting in just 0.9 jobs available per unemployed person — a ratio that’s been declining since its pandemic-era peak of 2.0. With companies holding on to existing workers, hiring slowing, and job switching becoming increasingly taxing, dating apps might have become the last resort for some: 42% of dating app users cited a difficult job market as a reason for using them to network, while 29% cited desperation to find work or advance their careers, per Resume Builder’s survey.