Dive Brief:
- While employers continue to open roles, they may not be following through on hires, according to a Nov. 13 report from iCIMS. Overall candidate interest also seems to be cooling, the report said.
- Candidate applications dropped 7% between September and October, and overall hires have dropped 5% since October 2024, iCIMS said. However, openings have climbed 4% year over year, the highest level in 12 months, according to the report.
- “More openings, slower hiring rate. That mismatch won’t last,” Trent Cotton, head of talent acquisition insights at iCIMS, said in a statement. “Frustrated candidates drop off fast, so the firms that cut red tape and move top talent through quickly will own the market.”
Dive Insight:
Due to the government shutdown, no U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data was published on time for September or October, leaving employers without a key national snapshot of the market. But various private reports — including iCIMS’s report — have showcased a market struggling to produce jobs consistently.
Another growing issue for employers, however, may be trust in job postings. Nearly a third of U.S. job postings may be “ghost jobs” — postings that never actually materialize into jobs, according to a report from MyPerfectResume. Of the 7.4 million openings reported in June, for example, only 5.2 million hires were reported.
“The U.S. labor market has long been measured by the number of job openings, but a closer look reveals a troubling truth: Not all postings are real opportunities,” a career expert for MyPerfectResume said in the report.
Notably, ghosting and job scams continue to haunt the job hunt, too, a Remote.co report said in October. But on top of that, 70% said low pay and inadequate benefits have kept them from taking real job offers, and 69% cited a culture issue in their refusal.
