US labor market
The US Bureau of Labor Statistics reports a 4.1% headline unemployment rate for March 2026, with 6.7 million people unemployed. Job openings remained near 7.6 million, indicating continued tight conditions for skilled and technical roles in particular.
Average weekly earnings of US private-sector employees reached approximately $1,200 in early 2026, with a year-over-year nominal increase of 4.0%. Real wages (inflation-adjusted) rose by approximately 1.2%, the slowest pace since 2023.
UK labor market
The UK Office for National Statistics reports a 4.4% unemployment rate for the rolling quarter ending February 2026, with vacancy levels still 25% above pre-2020 baselines. The IT and professional services sectors continue to report the largest skill-shortage gaps.
The UK National Living Wage rose to £11.44 per hour from 1 April 2024 (applied to workers aged 21 and over). The 2026 review increased the rate further to £12.21. Employers must apply this from the first pay reference period after April 2026.
Hiring metrics & benchmarks
Josh Bersin Research and the LinkedIn Future of Recruiting report converge on an average time-to-hire of 44 days globally across all roles. Engineering and senior leadership hires sit at 53 to 67 days; entry-level and frontline roles at 22 to 30 days.
Source: Josh Bersin Research, Global Time-to-Hire Index (2025)
SHRM's Talent Acquisition Benchmarking Report 2025 measures average US cost-per-hire at $4,700, including agency fees, internal recruiter time, sourcing tools, and onboarding cost in the first 30 days. Companies with under 100 employees spend less per hire ($1,800 average) but typically have longer time-to-fill cycles.
Indeed's Mobile Apply 2025 study reports 73% of mobile candidates abandon an application that exceeds 5 minutes. For entry-level positions the abandonment rate at 3 minutes is already 84%. ATS-resident application forms perform consistently better than off-platform redirects.
AI in recruiting
LinkedIn's Future of Recruiting 2025 reports 61% of recruiters globally use AI tools (CV screening, job description generation, candidate ranking, sourcing) at least once per week. Adoption has grown 4.2x compared to 2023. North America leads at 68%, Europe at 54%.
Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 (AI Act) classifies AI systems used in recruitment and worker evaluation as high-risk under Annex III. The high-risk obligations (transparency, human oversight, bias evaluation, conformity assessment) apply from 2 August 2026. Non-EU vendors selling to EU employers are in scope.
New York City's Local Law 144 requires employers using Automated Employment Decision Tools (AEDT) on NYC residents to commission an annual independent bias audit, publish the results, and notify candidates 10 business days before use. Penalties of up to $1,500 per violation per day. Enforcement active since 5 July 2023; ongoing requirement.
Source: NYC DCWP Local Law 144 (2023)
Retention & turnover
BLS JOLTS data shows 47.4 million Americans voluntarily quit jobs during calendar year 2024, an annualised quit rate of 2.3% per month on average. The quit rate has stabilised below the 2021 to 2022 'Great Resignation' peak but remains 12% above 2019 baselines.
Jobvite's Recruiter Nation Report 2025 finds 33% of new hires leave within their first 90 days. Top reported reasons: misaligned role expectations vs. job description (47%), poor onboarding experience (33%), better counter-offer (20%). Companies with structured 30-60-90 day onboarding plans cut early attrition by approximately half.
ATS adoption
Jobscan's Fortune 500 ATS Usage Report 2024 found 98.8% of Fortune 500 companies use an Applicant Tracking System. Adoption among small and mid-sized businesses (under 250 employees) is significantly lower, at approximately 35 to 45% per Capterra's B2B Software Survey. The mid-market gap represents the largest growth opportunity for modern ATS vendors.
The global Applicant Tracking System market reached approximately $3.2 billion in 2025, with a compound annual growth rate of 6.6% projected through 2030 according to Grand View Research. The mid-market segment (50 to 1,000 employees) shows the strongest growth as cloud-native, AI-equipped platforms displace legacy on-premise systems.
How to cite this page
All statistics are from public, primary sources. Please cite both the original source and this aggregation:
Treegarden Editorial Team (2026). Recruitment Statistics 2026: 14 Data Points. https://treegarden.io/blog/recruitment-statistics-2026/
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