Recruitics, a leading recruitment marketing and AI analytics platform, has officially published its latest Talent Market Index Report, which offers a comprehensive update on talent acquisition prices and labor market trends for September.
According to certain reports, the stated data markedly informs readers on a shift in seasonal hiring trends among the retail and hospitality industries, as well as month-over-month spikes in prices across several key industries, including retail, transportation, finance, and IT.
More on the same would reveal how the stated shift in hiring trends is driven by increased competition for specialized talent, preparations for the holiday season, and the effects of the recent interest rate cut. For instance, sectors such as sales and light industrial, the only two sectors to see declines in both monthly and yearly comparisons, continue to have tepid demand for talent during their post-pandemic recoveries, resulting in scaled back hiring efforts and ongoing declines in attraction prices.
Talk about the given report on a slightly deeper level, we begin from trends observed across the retail sector, where Recruitics report found that talent attraction prices surged 57.73% month-over-month, which aligns with the expected seasonal hiring rush. Having said so, this marked a drop 62.50% on the year-over-year metric. Furthermore, the report dug into how retailers are witnessing more organic applicants, something which is doing a lot to reduce reliance on paid ads. On top of that, with less competition for workers than in previous years, retailers are able to meet hiring goals more easily.
“By leveraging proprietary Recruitics data, the Talent Market Index provides a monthly snapshot of talent attraction prices and drivers of labor market trends across the U.S. economy,” said Adam Stafford, CEO of Recruitics. “We’ve seen seasonal hiring ramp up significantly, particularly in retail and transportation, where demand has soared since August. Shifting worker preferences are also reshaping seasonal recruitment strategies, with hospitality still facing significant hurdles while retail enjoys improved hiring conditions. Following the Federal Reserve’s September interest rate cut, we expect recruitment prices to rise even further as businesses respond to renewed hiring demand.”
Turning our attention towards the hiring landscape across the hospitality sector, it shows that, despite 145.20% year-over-year rise in prices, the sector experienced an 8.18% month-over-month decline following peak summer season. The presented staffing challenges are understood to be there mainly due to the physically demanding work, irregular hours, and workers seeking more stable jobs in industries like logistics or warehousing. Another detail worth a mention would be how, even with rising wages, hospitality continues to face talent shortages as demand for travel and leisure rebounds.
Beyond retail and hospitality, Recruitics’ report cast light on hiring trends in the IT sector, where talent attraction prices rose 5.02% month-over-month and a significant 82.31% year-over-year, further highlighting the demand for specialized skills. Basically, despite tech downsizing in other areas, the report found that companies are still recruiting experts in high-demand fields such as AI, cybersecurity, and cloud computing.
Recruitics’ study even documented the healthcare space, and as a result, revealed that talent prices around in this sector decreased 5.39% month-over-month but rose 9.91% year-over-year, reflecting a downturn in the extreme demand seen earlier in the year.
Then, we have the finance & operations space that saw talent attraction prices reaching 33-month high, with an increase of 7.69% month-over-month and 18.07% year-over-year. Joining the mix up next would be the Transportation & Logistics industry, where prices under focus increased 54.41% month-over-month and 14.89% year-over-year, driven by high demand as businesses prepare for the holiday shopping season.
Sales industry also made the cut, revealing that the recruitment prices dropped 8.13% month-over-month and 17.34% year-over-year. All in all, sales hiring remains cautious, but having said so, positive recruitment trends in the future indicate renewed economic optimism.
Lastly, the report expanded upon how talent acquisition costs in the light industry space went down by 10.27% month-over-month and 14.21% year-over-year, as demand stabilized and employers scaled back some operations.
