There are countless job opportunities all around you, and these hiring stats are there to prove it. Being well-informed can undoubtedly come in handy for your future job-searching endeavors.

You need to know as much as you can about the jobs, the companies, the recruitment process, and the competition because it will increase your chance of getting hired. But even as an employer, you need to know this to make better choices and hire the best candidates.

These stats will get you ready for possible obstacles while looking and applying for a job or recruiting people.

The Most Important Hiring Statistics of 2020 (Editor's Choice)

  • Reports showed that millennials would make 50% of the US workforce by the end of 2020.
  • The number of job openings in the US was 6.53 million in November 2020.
  • The unemployment rate decreased by 0.4% at the start of 2021.
  • The percentage of jobs found through networking is anywhere between 50–80%.
  • The chance of getting hired by Google is 0.2%. 
  • The average number of applicants per job is 250, per the latest available reports in 2021.

General Hiring Stats—Before the Pandemic

The hiring process isn’t as simple as it seems. Every company has its recruitment method, but recruitment changes as employers adapt to new technologies and trends. Statistics from 2019 can help us understand the overall hiring situation and conclude which trends are changing by 2021, following the pandemic’s impact.

1. Only 39% of the hiring teams received interview training.

Even though the unemployment rate was low in 2019, candidate experience statistics from 2019 indicate that employers didn't have a clear picture of candidate experience. Employers weren't prepared enough to make data-driven decisions. 

Around 77% of talent leaders claimed that their candidate experience was excellent or outstanding. In comparison, 84% of candidates stated they had negative experiences while looking for a job, and nearly 20% of survey respondents said the hiring process is unstructured in their companies. 

2. 61% of tech hiring professionals stated that a four-year degree is not enough to prepare candidates to be successful in a new workplace.

According to the recruitment statistics from 2019, 44% of employers said that less than 25% of their hires had a college degree in a related field. Hiring based on skills is the new norm. Hiring freelancers has also become much more popular due to their lower cost.

3. The job board industry has grown by 16.6% from 2014 to 2019.

Job boards are search engines that display job openings. Online hiring has increased rapidly since the 2000s. The job board industry’s revenue growth was 19.4% in 2017 and sat at $9.5 billion in 2019. Job board industry statistics also reveal a significant decrease in unemployment rates. The most popular job boards are Indeed, CareerBuilder, LinkedIn, Job.com, Ladders, Glassdoor, etc.

4. 60% of job seekers gave up on their application due to its complexity or length.

Employers and applicants seem to have different opinions about job descriptions. While 72% of employers believed they provided clear job descriptions, only 36% of applicants agreed with their statement. 

Also, 80% of applicants said they would be discouraged from applying for other relevant job openings in the same company that hadn’t notified them of their application status.

Hiring Statistics to Know in 2022—Impact of the Pandemic

Keeping abreast of the latest recruitment trends can improve your chances of getting the desired job fast. 

Thanks to technological advancement—and a necessity, as of recently—you can even look for jobs on social media platforms.

5. Reports showed that millennials would make 50% of the US workforce by the end of 2020.

While 50% of the US workforce will consist of millennials in 2020, the percentage will increase to 75% by 2025. Recruiting stats tell us that the way of recruitment has changed over time. 

Companies need to understand millennials better and provide them with the right working conditions, such as a fun work environment, more time off, a mentor, and enabling learning and career development.

6. The number of job openings in the US was 6.53 million in November 2020.

Since February last year, the number hasn’t passed seven million, hitting the year low of five million in April.

November 2021 is when the latest data on this is available. It showed a slight decrease in job openings compared to October when 6.63 million new jobs were on the market.

7. Unemployment rate decreased by 0.4% at the start of 2021.

Statistics from January marked the number of unemployed people dropping to 10.1 million with the influx of new jobs. The unemployment rate is 6.3% currently. 

This is still well over the pre-pandemic numbers—however, the job market seems to be recovering.

8. The nonfarm hiring rate was 4.2% in November 2020. 

At the same time, the separation rate was 3.8%. The most significant spike in hiring numbers occurred just a month earlier—in October, the hiring rates were at 42%, with the separation rate at 3.6%. The separation rate includes both voluntary quits and involuntary discharges, as well as retirement.  

9. Reports show 227,000 jobs were lost in December—the first negative numbers since May 2020.

The initial report estimated that the number would be 140,000. However, just like in November, the gravity of the situation was significantly underestimated. 

Job market statistics for November projected 336,000 new jobs, but only 264,000 were added to the economy in reality. 

10. The average cost of a bad hire is around 30% of the employee's first-year earnings.

According to the US Department of Labor's estimation, hiring the wrong person can cost a company thousands of dollars. Based on this information, we can conclude that a bad hire can negatively affect a company. 

The cost of a bad hire statistics show that approximately 41% of companies stated that last year, their cost of a bad hire was at least $25,000. For 25% of companies, that cost was at least $50,000. 

11. 80% of employees prefer more benefits over a salary increase.

Employees tend to value benefits more than a salary increase, as 57% of employees consider perks and benefits as the top factor to take a job. 

Most adults with children also prefer benefits, as 82% of women and 76% of men with kids think that benefits are more important than salary.

The figure erased a year’s worth of new jobs created in the technology industry. Of course, the overall number was proportionally more shocking, with 20.5 million jobs lost across all US sectors.  

13. Men believe they only need to fulfill 60% of the requirements when applying for a job.

Recruitment statistics from 2020 reveal that there is a difference in how men and women perceive job applications. Women think they need to fulfill 100% of the requirements if they want to apply for a job. 

Only 12.7% of men don’t apply because they believe they can’t do the job, while 21.6% of women think the same. This is probably due to the stigma around gender bias.

14. 24.5% of employee turnover costs are the delays or products or services.

Retention-focused hiring is one of the most popular hiring trends in 2020. The costs of employee turnover are high, and that’s why many employers endeavor to hire employers with retention in mind. 

Losing employees can lead to losing customers, but employers don’t hire people just to fill the positions. They need productive workers.

Hiring Stats About Different Ways Businesses Do Recruitment

Looking for a job is easier than ever before. However, it’s considerably more challenging to get hired by certain companies. Applicants are expected to know more about the company they’re applying for, so they can get ready for an interview properly. Interestingly, many companies these days hire applicants through social media or global PEO services. Talent Acquisition keeps evolving with the new developments in the economy and the new advances in technology.

Here, you can find the latest information on how and where companies recruit people.

15. 82.4% of candidates are comfortable with the video interviewing method.

Online interviews are more and more popular among first-class companies. Looking at the job interview statistics, we can infer that 82.4% of candidates are satisfied with this interviewing method. 

After the video interview, only the best candidates are interviewed face-to-face. Apart from happy applicants, companies are 2.7 times more likely to improve the cost per hire when using video interviewing. 

16. 70% of hiring managers have hired applicants through social media.

Recruiting people using social media has become more common. Around 79% of applicants claim they search for a job on social media platforms, and one in ten finds a job. Social media recruiting statistics show that the most in-demand HR skill is social media marketing because 73% of millennials have found their last job through social media.

17. 17% of companies either don’t track or don’t know what their cost-per-hire is.

While most companies report their cost-per-hire is $3,000 or less, 9% of organizations didn’t know their cost-per-hire, and 7% of them didn’t have a way to track it. On the other hand, 31% of organizations spend more than average, and 5% report spending more than $6,000 per opening.

18. LinkedIn has over 575 million users, and 260 million of them are monthly active.

Statistics show that hiring through LinkedIn in 2020 and today made more sense than ever. There were more than 14 million job openings, 20 million listed companies, and 90% of recruiters that regularly use it. The average time users spend on Linkedin per day is approximately 17 minutes. 

There are more than 150 million registered accounts in the US alone. When recruitment is in question, 122 million people received an interview through Linkedin, and 35.5 million were hired.

19. The percentage of jobs found through networking is anywhere between 50–80%.

Recent networking statistics show that companies mostly hire candidates that cultivate their work network carefully. 

Another exceptional estimate from the survey is that 70% of available jobs aren’t published on any jobs sites. 

20. Getting a job in the hospitality industry takes 46 days on average.

The average time to hire varies by industry. Out of surveyed industries, retail had the shortest hiring period—it takes 25 days to hire someone.

Education and media, and telecommunication industries also take their time with hiring, with both taking an average of 43 days to recruit someone. 

21. As of 2018, 63% of the US employers stated they’d be hiring full-time.

Employers are looking to hire permanent workers. Additionally, they’ll work on employee incentives. 

For example, 25% of them will offer remote working options, 31% will give employee discounts, 22% provide additional paid time-off, and 21% will provide bonuses when hiring candidates. 

22. Job searches from mobile devices exceed 1 billion every month.

Based on these online job search statistics, we can conclude how common searching for a job using a mobile device is. Almost 90% of job seekers use a mobile phone when searching for a job through career pages, job ads, and recruitment applications. 

The two most significant benefits of mobile recruiting are reaching candidates remotely and enabling hiring managers to recruit candidates faster and efficiently. Job boards are adapting and improving continually.

23. The chance of getting hired by Google is 0.2%.

According to Google hiring statistics, they receive more than three million applications per year. This company wants smart, experienced, and collaborative people who can quickly adapt and lead.

The hiring process takes six to nine months, and applicants had 15 to 20 interviews. Luckily, their analytics team estimated that four interviews are enough for the team to hire someone with 86% confidence.

24. Referrals are four times more likely to get hired.

Employee referral statistics show that 82% of employees think that referrals are the best for good ROI. Employee referrals are applicants recommended by employees. They are critical because 45% of referrals stay with the company four years or more, and they fill the positions faster (in 35 to 40 days instead of 60). Employers can save a lot of money by hiring referrals. 

25. The projected number of self-employed workers in the US is 42 million.

There are more gig workers, independent contractors, freelancers, and crowd workers, as 10% of employees participate in the gig economy and vastly influence the net employment growth. With 42 million self-employed workers in the US, this number is continuously on the rise.

Other Hiring Statistics, Interesting Facts, and Tips

There are a variety of factors that can contribute to the employment rate. Things like gender or age bias have detrimental effects on employers and workers because it’s proven that a diverse workforce operates much better. You can find more information about it, and some other helpful statistics about interviews and job applications.

Summer and the period of holidays, in general, are not likely to be successful for a job seeker, as those have shown to be the slowest time spans of the year. 

As the companies start the year with new budgets, a lot of it goes on hiring, so winter is the most popular, as far as seasonal hiring trends go.

27. Generation Z is the most interested in software jobs.

Generation Z (born after 1995) mostly apply for job positions at IBM, Google, Microsoft, Deloitte, and Amazon. Around 19% of all applications by Generation Z are for a software engineer position. The second most-applied-for job position is a software developer.

28. Women have 30% fewer chances to be called for a job interview than men with the same qualifications.

Gender bias in hiring statistics from a study conducted by the UPF's Department of Political and Social Sciences shows that gender bias is higher when candidates with lower qualifications are in question. Having children also influences women's careers because mothers are around 35.9% less likely to be called for a job interview.

29. Women represent only 28% of the science and engineering workforce.

Not only are women less likely to be hired in the science and engineering industry, but they’re also less paid than men. Hiring report states that anonymizing job applications can reduce gender bias. Although many institutions recommend this type of interviewing, no movement has been made towards implementing it.

Furthermore, 57.4% of women in the US actively participate in the workforce, compared to 69.2% of men.

30. Women’s workforce participation rate hit the lowest number in 33 years in 2021.

An additional 275,000 women were out of the working arrangement in January 2021. This indicates the worst drop since 1988.

Over two in five jobs lost due to the pandemic (between February and April 2020) have yet to be retained in 2021.

31. The average number of interviews per job is between six and twelve.

Usually, two or four candidates make it to the onsite interview. If a hiring manager is satisfied with, for example, five out of six people, they will interview them in phases, so everything remains organized. On average, employers interview between six and ten applicants.

32. Burned-out employees are 63% more prone to taking a sick day.

Employee burnout is a big problem both for workers and for employers. Gallup’s study showed that 23% of employees always felt burned out, and 44% of employees felt like that from time to time. Burned-out employees have 13% lower confidence, and their level of productivity is lower. 

33. The average number of applicants per job is 250, per the latest available reports in 2021.

Many companies have multiple interviews, so more team members can meet the candidate and express their opinion. 

The average number of resumes attracted by a corporate job offer is 250. Interestingly—69% of job seekers still wouldn’t accept a working opportunity in a company with a bad reputation.

34. 51% of employees thought annual reviews were inaccurate.

Around 77% of HR executives believed performance reviews weren’t a fair and accurate way of measuring employee performance. According to these human resource statistics, Generation Z preferred on-site more than formal reviews.

35. Racially diverse teams have 35% better results than non-diverse teams.

A cognitive intelligence study conducted by MIT engineers revealed having a racially diverse team leads to better results. People performed better and put more effort into understanding each other. Teaming up with people you disagree with can hamper each team member’s productivity levels, though.

36. 79% of job seekers will consider a company's mission before applying.

Job search stats reveal that a company's mission has become more critical for employees. The candidates need to know if the company fits them, and that's why having a clear and honest mission is essential. 

Around 66% of employees are motivated by their company's mission, and 64% of them claim that it’s the main reason they stay in their current job positions.

37. 61% in the US have witnessed or experienced discrimination because of their age, race, sexual orientation, or gender.

Three in five employees in the US are the witnesses or victims of discrimination at work. According to hiring discrimination statistics from 2019, it's evident that people face discrimination worldwide, not just in the US. 

Approximately 55% of UK employees, 43% in France, and 37% in Germany had discrimination problems. The most common trigger in the US and Germany is age, while France and the UK struggle with gender.

The Takeaway

Recruiting trends have changed significantly compared to the past decade, and the ways of recruiting are continually adapting due to technological advancement.

Recruiting statistics such as these illuminate that company culture and its mission has become more critical than ever before, which is a good thing because getting hired through social media would seem impossible a while ago.

The ways of recruitment will always adapt to the new kinds of workforces who demand different things. For example, millennials and Generation Z have undoubtedly changed the ways of hiring.

As technology advances, we can only wait and see how things will unfold in the future.