A nationwide survey of job seekers and employers finds businesses dealing with persistent talent shortages in a tight labor market are increasingly using online job boards to recruit and most are posting salary ranges for open positions to attract more applicants.
The iHire 4th Annual State of Online Recruiting Report found that 57% of employers said they always include salary ranges in their job postings, an increase from 46% in 2021. In all, 60.2% of employers said they’ve increased their reliance on job boards in the past year, and 71.1% use them for most or all hiring.
Among job seekers, 66.3% said they’d go to a job board first if they needed to find work immediately and 68% of job seekers said they are more likely to apply for a position if the job posting includes the position’s salary.
Themes emerging from the recent survey of 4,207 U.S. job seekers and employers in 57 industries include the ongoing talent shortage amid high employee turnover, the impact of economic uncertainty on hiring, remote work, and poor applicant-employer communication.
Among the key findings:
- For the fourth straight year, employers cited finding qualified candidates among their top hiring challenges. In 2022, 68.0% said they receive too few applicants, and 64.5% said the applicants they receive are unqualified. Further, 82.0% anticipate the talent shortage continuing throughout the upcoming year.
- The “Great Resignation” isn’t slowing. More than half (57.3%) of candidates said they were employed and seeking a job actively or passively, suggesting that the “Big Quit” may stick around. Employers agree: 41.1% foresee difficulty retaining employees in the months to come.
- As inflation rises, 43.5% of candidates and 33.9% of employers expect economic uncertainty to impact their ability to find work and hire, respectively, in the next year.
- Both job seekers and employers cite poor communication as a problem in the hiring process. 52.1% of employers are frustrated by unresponsive applicants and 44.8% of job seekers said getting “ghosted” by employers was a major job search challenge.
- Candidates still want remote work, but it’s getting harder to find. 22.9% of job seekers are having trouble finding remote work (up 6.4% from 2021), and 29.3% of employers foresee candidates’ preference for remote work hindering their ability to hire.
“The talent shortage has become a long-term issue rather than a passing trend, according to our State of Online Recruiting Report’s year-over-year survey findings,” said Steve Flook, president and CEO of iHire. “All the while, voluntarily resignations, economic concerns, and candidates’ continued interest in remote work are just a few of the challenges complicating hiring in today’s tight labor market.”
