Recruitment statistics 2026

of Fortune 500 companies used a detectable applicant tracking system (ATS) in 2025 (489 of 500).

global ATS market size in 2024, projected to reach $5.7B by 2034 at an 8.3% CAGR.

of organizations use AI to support recruiting efforts — the most common HR application of AI.

of organizations used AI for HR tasks in 2025, up from 26% in 2024.

say writing job descriptions is the most common AI recruiting use case (screening resumes follows at 44%).

of HR professionals whose organization uses AI for recruiting say it saves time or increases efficiency.

of U.S. hiring managers report using AI in some capacity in the hiring process.

of the workweek is saved on average by recruiters using generative AI — roughly one full workday per week.

of job seekers say they would reject a job offer from a recruiting process that relies too heavily on AI.

average time-to-fill in 2024, down from 48 days in 2023 across Employ's customer base.

global average time-to-hire reached in Q1 2023, based on analysis of ~250,000 hires.

average global time-to-fill for engineering roles — the longest among benchmarked role categories.

median time-to-fill across all U.S. industries (45 days average) in SHRM's benchmarking table (FY2016 data — still the most-cited SHRM figure).

average cost-per-hire in the U.S., per SHRM benchmarking.

median cost-per-hire across all U.S. industries ($4,669 average) in SHRM's benchmarking table (FY2016 data).

median executive cost-per-hire — roughly 3× the cost of a non-executive hire (FY2016 data).

average number of applicants employers received for every hire made in 2024.

of people who clicked to apply actually completed the application, on average across industries.

of applicants received an interview invitation; the interview-to-hire ratio was 27%.

of job seekers have abandoned a job application midway because it was overly complicated or time-consuming.

of candidates had not heard back from employers one to two months after applying.

of professionals say they would lose interest in a role if the organization did not list a salary range.