Recruitment statistics 2026

global ATS market size in 2021, projected to reach $3.71B by 2030 (6.2% CAGR), with large enterprises generating the highest share of revenue.

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

of Fortune 500 companies (489 of 500) were detected using an applicant tracking system.

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 HR professionals whose organization uses AI for recruiting say it helps reduce recruitment, interviewing, and hiring costs.

of HR professionals using AI for recruiting report an improved ability to identify top candidates.

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

of talent-acquisition professionals believe AI can improve how they measure quality of hire.

median time to fill a role (executive or non-executive) in SHRM's 2025 benchmarking.

average duration of the screening stage and of the interviewing stage (each), per SHRM 2025 benchmarking.

average global time-to-hire for professional-services roles — above the 43-day overall average in the same analysis.

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

time-to-hire for specialist roles in energy and defense — the longest-hiring sector in the same global analysis.

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 for non-executive roles in the U.S., per SHRM's 2025 benchmarking.

average cost per hire for executive roles — roughly seven times a non-executive hire (SHRM 2025).

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).

of job seekers have been ghosted by an employer after a job interview — up 9 points since April 2024.

of candidates found the job they were offered differed from what was advertised.

of candidates (31% of Gen Z) use bots to auto-apply to roles, inflating applicant volume.

of organizations that struggled to recruit in 2025 cited a low number of applicants — the single most common hiring challenge.

of people who click “Apply” never complete the online job application, a drop-off driven by long, friction-heavy forms.

of organizations facing recruitment difficulty in 2025 reported an increase in candidate “ghosting” — applicants going silent during the process.

are required on average to get through a Fortune 500 online job application — friction that drives candidate drop-off.

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.

the industry-average number of applicants per open requisition.

industry-average interview-to-hire ratio — roughly one hire for every four candidates interviewed.

industry-average share of applicants considered qualified for the role they applied to.

industry-average online application completion rate — about three in four applicants abandon the form.

of job seekers “mass apply” to roles, increasing applicant volume per posting.

the cost to replace a departing employee, depending on role and seniority.

higher turnover in low-engagement teams versus high-engagement teams.

of organizations actually track quality of hire — the metric most say matters most.

U.S. voluntary quits per month in the latest JOLTS release (April 2026) — a live read on turnover.

U.S. total hires per month in the latest JOLTS release (April 2026).

of employers cite the skills gap as the #1 barrier to business transformation by 2030.

of employers plan to hire staff with new skills (including AI skills) by 2030.

of workers' core skills are expected to change by 2030.

net new jobs expected globally by 2030 (170M created, 92M displaced).

people employed in India's IT industry, which remained a net hirer.

projected size of India's AI talent pool.

projected India Global Capability Centre (GCC) workforce.

of developers work fully remote and hybrid respectively, with only 20% fully in-person — enabling distributed and offshore teams.