Recruiting and Hiring Statistics 2026

How to read this page: every figure names its source and year. Survey results, official statistics, vendor claims and figures from our own directory are labeled separately, because they are not equally reliable.

What does the U.S. hiring market look like?

These figures come from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and describe how many jobs are open, how many people are hired and how many quit.

1. U.S. employers reported 7.5 million job openings (a rate of 4.5%) and 5.4 million hires (a rate of 3.4%) in September 2026, and BLS said openings and hires changed little from August.Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Job Openings and Labor Turnover Summary, 2026
2. In September 2026, 3.4 million U.S. workers quit their jobs (a quits rate of 2.1%) and 1.6 million were laid off or discharged (a rate of 1.0%).Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Job Openings and Labor Turnover Summary, 2026
3. In January 2026 (preliminary, seasonally adjusted), U.S. employers had 6.9 million openings and 5.3 million hires, a hires rate of 3.3%.Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, JOLTS release of March 13, 2026, 2026
4. In August 2025 the U.S. had 7.2 million job openings, compared with 7.6 million in August 2024, with a hires rate of 3.2% and a quits rate of 1.9%.Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, JOLTS release of September 30, 2025, 2025
5. Among private U.S. establishments in September 2026, the hires rate was highest at firms with 50 to 249 employees (4.2%) and lowest at firms with 5,000 or more employees (1.8%).Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, JOLTS Table 7 (hires by establishment size), 2026
6. The U.S. unemployment rate was 4.1% in October 2026, with 7.1 million people unemployed and nonfarm payrolls up by 165,000.Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment Situation Summary, 2026
7. Long-term unemployed people (jobless for 27 weeks or more) made up 27.6% of all unemployed U.S. workers in October 2026, about 2.0 million people.Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment Situation Summary, 2026

How many jobs are being advertised?

Job postings show demand before it turns into hires. Indeed measures them against a February 2020 baseline of 100.

1. Indeed's U.S. Job Postings Index stood at 101.0 on June 30, 2026, one percent above its pre-pandemic baseline of 100 and up 1.0% from the month before.Source: Indeed Hiring Lab, U.S. Labor Market Snapshot, June 2026, 2026
2. U.S. job postings on Indeed were 3.7% lower in June 2026 than a year earlier, an improvement on the 7.5% year-over-year decline recorded in June 2025.Source: Indeed Hiring Lab, U.S. Labor Market Snapshot, June 2026, 2026
3. In late June 2026, 49% of occupational sectors on Indeed had more postings than before the pandemic, and many engineering and healthcare fields sat about 30% above the February 2020 level.Source: Indeed Hiring Lab, U.S. Labor Market Snapshot, June 2026, 2026
4. Indeed's sector index showed Human Resources postings at about 93 and Software Development postings at about 73 (February 2020 = 100) in mid-2026.Source: Indeed Hiring Lab, U.S. Labor Market Snapshot, June 2026, 2026
5. Posted wages on Indeed grew 2.4% year over year in the twelve months to June 2026, below the 3.5% inflation rate shown in the same report.Source: Indeed Hiring Lab, U.S. Labor Market Snapshot, June 2026, 2026
6. Gallup reported that revised official figures show 181,000 U.S. jobs added in 2025, compared with 1.5 million in 2024.Source: Gallup, global engagement falls for the second time since the pandemic, 2026

What is the European vacancy picture?

Eurostat publishes the share of posts that are vacant, which gives a rough read on how hard it is to hire in each country.

1. The EU job vacancy rate was 2.0% in the second quarter of 2026, down from 2.1% in the first quarter and 2.1% a year earlier.Source: Eurostat, Job vacancy statistics, 2026
2. The euro area job vacancy rate was 2.1% in the second quarter of 2026, down from 2.3% in the first quarter of 2026 and 2.2% in the second quarter of 2025.Source: Eurostat, Job vacancy statistics, 2026
3. The Netherlands had the highest job vacancy rate among EU members in the second quarter of 2026 at 4.1%, ahead of Belgium (3.3%), Malta (3.1%) and Austria (2.9%).Source: Eurostat, Job vacancy statistics, 2026
4. Romania had the lowest EU job vacancy rate in the second quarter of 2026 at 0.5%, followed by Poland and Bulgaria at 0.8% each.Source: Eurostat, Job vacancy statistics, 2026
5. Compared with the second quarter of 2025, the vacancy rate rose in 3 EU member states, stayed stable in 8 and fell in 15, with Cyprus down 0.7 percentage points.Source: Eurostat, Job vacancy statistics, 2026
6. Across the EU in the second quarter of 2026, construction (2.8%) and administrative and support services (2.8%) had the highest vacancy rates of the sectors Eurostat lists, while information and communication stood at 2.2%.Source: Eurostat, Job vacancy statistics, 2026

How hard do employers find it to fill roles?

Two large employer surveys measure how many organizations say they struggle to hire.

1. 72% of employers worldwide reported difficulty finding skilled talent in ManpowerGroup's 2026 survey of 39,063 employers in 41 countries, down from 74% the year before.Source: ManpowerGroup, 2026 Global Talent Shortage Survey, 2026Survey
2. By country, 83% of surveyed employers in Germany, 74% in France, 73% in the United Kingdom, 69% in the United States and 48% in China reported talent shortages.Source: ManpowerGroup, 2026 Global Talent Shortage Survey, 2026Survey
3. By sector, 75% of employers in information, 74% in hospitality and 74% in public sector, health and social services reported shortages, against 71% in finance and insurance.Source: ManpowerGroup, 2026 Global Talent Shortage Survey, 2026Survey
4. Shortage reports were highest at companies with 1,000 to 4,999 employees (75%) and lowest at companies with fewer than 10 employees (64%).Source: ManpowerGroup, 2026 Global Talent Shortage Survey, 2026Survey
5. AI model and application development (20%) and AI literacy (19%) were the skills employers found hardest to find, ahead of engineering (19%) and sales and marketing (18%).Source: ManpowerGroup, 2026 Global Talent Shortage Survey, 2026Survey
6. More than 2 in 3 organizations reported struggles hiring for open positions in 2026, according to SHRM's benchmarking page.Source: SHRM, Recruiting Benchmarking, 2026Survey

How long and how busy is the recruiting process?

SHRM and Greenhouse publish benchmarks on time to fill, recruiter workload and how many applications it takes to produce a hire.

1. The median time to fill a nonexecutive position was 39 calendar days in SHRM's 2026 benchmarking, a decrease from the prior year; SHRM reports executive time to fill stayed the same.Source: SHRM, Recruiting Benchmarking, 2026
2. Extra-large organizations saw median requisitions per recruiter rise 67% in 2026, in SHRM benchmarking data drawn from over 4,600 organizations.Source: SHRM, Recruiting Benchmarking, 2026
3. The median share of nonexecutive positions filled with external hires rose from 93% in 2025 to 97% in 2026.Source: SHRM, Recruiting Benchmarking, 2026
4. Greenhouse data on 161.8 million U.S. applications across 9,473 companies (January to August 2026) shows 194 applications per hire and a median of 62 days to fill a role.Source: Greenhouse, The Hire Standard recruiting benchmarks, 2026
5. Of every 1,000 applications in Greenhouse's 2026 data, 75 were screened, 32 reached an interview and 5 ended in a hire.Source: Greenhouse, The Hire Standard recruiting benchmarks, 2026
6. Greenhouse reports that 33% of openings went unfilled in its 2026 data, and the share of openings closed with a hire rose from 63.5% to 70.5% between January and August.Source: Greenhouse, The Hire Standard recruiting benchmarks, 2026
7. Between January and August 2026, hires in Greenhouse's customer data rose 27.7% while application volume stayed flat, and monthly hires per recruiter rose 10.6%.Source: Greenhouse, The Hire Standard recruiting benchmarks, 2026

How do job seekers experience hiring?

These figures come from a vendor survey of active job seekers, so they describe candidates in the U.S., UK and Ireland rather than all workers.

1. Only 7% of the 2,200 active job seekers surveyed in the U.S., UK and Ireland said the job market favors candidates, and 66% said they feel intense pressure in it.Source: Greenhouse, 2025 Workforce and Hiring Report, 2025
2. 72% of surveyed job seekers said the job they applied for differed from what was offered.Source: Greenhouse, 2025 Workforce and Hiring Report, 2025
3. 22% of surveyed job seekers said they use bots to apply to roles automatically, rising to 31% among Gen Z candidates.Source: Greenhouse, 2025 Workforce and Hiring Report, 2025
4. 28% of surveyed job seekers admitted using AI to generate fake work samples, and 32% said they had claimed AI skills they do not have.Source: Greenhouse, 2025 Workforce and Hiring Report, 2025
5. 53% of U.S. job seekers in the survey reported facing illegal or discriminatory questions during hiring.Source: Greenhouse, 2025 Workforce and Hiring Report, 2025
6. 27% of surveyed job seekers said they had never seen an employer policy on the use of AI in hiring.Source: Greenhouse, 2025 Workforce and Hiring Report, 2025

What do people think about AI in hiring?

The most cited independent survey on this topic is from Pew Research Center. It dates from late 2022, so read it as a baseline for public attitudes.

1. 71% of U.S. adults opposed AI making a final hiring decision, 7% favored it and 22% were not sure.Source: Pew Research Center, AI in Hiring and Evaluating Workers, 2023Survey
2. 66% of U.S. adults said they would not want to apply for a job with an employer that uses AI in hiring decisions, while 32% said they would.Source: Pew Research Center, AI in Hiring and Evaluating Workers, 2023Survey
3. For reviewing job applications, 41% of U.S. adults opposed AI, 28% favored it and 30% were not sure.Source: Pew Research Center, AI in Hiring and Evaluating Workers, 2023Survey
4. 47% of U.S. adults said AI would do a better job than humans at treating all applicants the same way, and 15% said it would do worse.Source: Pew Research Center, AI in Hiring and Evaluating Workers, 2023Survey
5. 44% of U.S. adults said AI would do a worse job than humans at seeing potential in applicants who do not perfectly fit a job description, against 17% who said it would do better.Source: Pew Research Center, AI in Hiring and Evaluating Workers, 2023Survey
6. 61% of U.S. adults had heard nothing about AI being used in hiring when Pew asked, and only 7% had heard a lot.Source: Pew Research Center, AI in Hiring and Evaluating Workers, 2023Survey
7. In early 2026, 18% of U.S. employees said it was somewhat or very likely that AI would eliminate their job within five years, up from 15% in the previous two years of Gallup's survey.Source: Gallup, global engagement falls for the second time since the pandemic, 2026Survey

Methodology

We selected facts that appear on a page we opened while writing this page, and we dropped any figure known only from a search snippet or a second-hand summary. Government data (BLS, Eurostat) is the strongest evidence here. The SHRM, ManpowerGroup, Gallup and Pew figures come from published survey reports, while the Indeed and Greenhouse figures come from vendor-run data and should be read as descriptions of their own customers and users.

Limits: the labor market figures change monthly and are preliminary when first published. SHRM's dollar figures for cost per hire sit behind a member paywall, so we report only the public time-to-fill and workload figures. The Pew survey was fielded in December 2022, and the Greenhouse seeker survey covers the U.S., UK and Ireland only.

Definitions of time to fill differ between SHRM (requisition to offer acceptance) and vendor data, so do not compare the 39-day and 62-day figures directly.

Frequently asked questions

How many job openings are there in the United States?

BLS reported 7.5 million U.S. job openings in September 2026, a rate of 4.5%, with 5.4 million hires that month. In January 2026 the figure was 6.9 million openings, so openings have moved within a fairly narrow range over the year.

How long does it take to fill a job?

SHRM's 2026 benchmarking puts the median at 39 calendar days for nonexecutive roles, measured from requisition to offer acceptance. Greenhouse's 2026 customer data shows a median of 62 days to fill a role. The two are measured differently, so use the one that matches how your team counts.

How many applications does it take to make one hire?

Greenhouse's U.S. data from January to August 2026 shows 194 applications per hire. Of every 1,000 applications, 75 were screened, 32 reached an interview and 5 ended in a hire. This is vendor data from its own customers, so smaller or non-Greenhouse employers may see different ratios.

What share of employers say hiring is difficult?

ManpowerGroup's 2026 survey of 39,063 employers in 41 countries found 72% report difficulty filling roles, down from 74%. SHRM's benchmarking page says more than 2 in 3 organizations struggled to hire in 2026. Reported difficulty varies by country, from 83% in Germany to 48% in China.

Do job seekers trust AI in hiring?

Mostly not. In Pew's survey of U.S. adults, 66% said they would not want to apply to an employer that uses AI in hiring decisions, and 71% opposed AI making the final decision. The survey dates from December 2022, so attitudes may have shifted since.