Are job orders going up or down? And what does it take to fill them? Each month, Bullhorn tracks key indicators from our proprietary data to reveal changes in the global hiring landscape. Check in at the start of every month for the latest trends in permanent and temporary hiring.
Month ending Nov 30, 2025 Last updated: December 3, 2025
Temporary recruitment showing positive signs
Job orders declined this month, as is typical for November. And temporary job orders remain slightly above where they were at the same point in 2024. This tracks with the general upward trend in job fill rate, which has been increasing over the last year and a half. However, permanent job orders are a bit behind November 2024, and the job fill rate for permanent placements fell by more than 10 points this month, putting it around 3 points below where it was this time last year. Overall, the trend for temporary placement is positive, with job orders on track seasonally and jobs filling quickly and with less effort. The story for permanent placements is more mixed. Job orders are just slightly behind last year, but submissions are about where they have been throughout 2025 and lower than this time last year, so recruiters aren’t working harder to fill available roles. The dip in fill rate is a trend to watch, though permanent fill rate is still up for the year.
Job orders fall in line with typical seasonal pattern
Permanent job fill rate falls, but still up year over year
Recruiter effort largely stable
Methodology
Hiring outlook metrics were calculated from Bullhorn ATS data for customers that have opted in to share aggregated data. Customers were qualified as professional or commercial if the majority of their placements were within these industries. Temporary/contingent placements are those with a set end date; permanent/direct hire placements are those without.
Jobs orders per recruiter is calculated as the volume of job order records created divided by the unique number of users within the calendar month.
Job fill rate is calculated as the proportion of job order records that were placed within 90 days of their open date. This is a trailing indicator that covers jobs created three calendar months prior to the period.
Submissions per job order is calculated as the volume of client submissions divided by the volume of job orders in the period. This metric represents records created in the previous calendar month.
