Weekly Insights

Dec 2, 2025

New college grads face lower salaries this year

In 2025 job postings targeting recent college graduates, average starting salaries fell in nine out of ten key industries. Finance saw the biggest decline, with initial pay dropping by more than 20%, compared to 2024. IT and marketing salaries fell around 15% each. Only healthcare was immune to this trend, mirroring national job data that highlights it as the market’s one reliable source of growth.

Nov 25, 2025

US retail jobs recover slightly in October but lag behind 2024

Retail job openings peaked in July at over 400,000, but cooled rapidly into the fall, with over 90,000 fewer job openings by September. October saw a modest uptick, but openings remain 8% lower than last October as the holiday shopping season begins.

Nov 18, 2025

US transportation jobs surge in Q3

Manufacturing and wholesale trade jobs remained stable in Q3 despite a changing policy landscape, while transportation and warehousing saw a surge of over 75,000 new openings. This suggests that employers are expanding capacity to meet immediate supply chain needs and heightened holiday logistics demand.

Nov 11, 2025

Job openings for nurses are declining

In 2025, healthcare has emerged as a rare bright spot in an otherwise sluggish job market, with healthcare jobs rising steadily throughout the year. However, the gains haven’t been evenly distributed throughout the field. Job openings for Licensed Practical Nurses have fallen nearly 12%, while Intensive/Intermediate Care Nurse openings are down 10%. This may signal a period of hiring stagnation as employers focus on reducing labor costs, with only higher-margin, diagnostic roles like radiology seeing growth, and lower-cost roles like medical assistants holding steady.

Nov 4, 2025

AI skills are in demand across industries

It’s no surprise that AI-related skills are now required in nearly one-third of IT job openings. But AI is transforming roles far beyond IT. Nearly 17% of marketing roles and more than 10% of insurance roles now list the regular use of AI tools as a requirement, compared to just 5% of customer service jobs.

Oct 28, 2025

Talent is increasingly dissatisfied with the recruitment process at all stages

According to our survey of nearly 2,800 candidates, satisfaction with the job search and placement experience has fallen from 2024 to 2025. With the job market at a standstill, firms have a critical opportunity to stand out by offering the high-touch, personalized experience job boards simply can’t match.

Oct 21, 2025

AI’s biggest wins with job seekers

Candidates understand that AI is solving the “black hole” problem in recruiting, and they clearly see the benefits of a faster, more responsive placement process. And recruiters feel it, too.

“Being able to see that chatbot interaction immediately and get it distributed out to a recruiter has made that turnaround time so, so much faster. We’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback on just responsiveness.”

— Recruitment industry chief operating officer

Oct 14, 2025

Retail job numbers well below last two years

Retail is often a bellwether for consumer confidence and economic health. In 2025, retail job openings have been relatively stable, following typical seasonal patterns, but at a lower level than either of the past two years. And it remains to be seen whether the end of the year will look more like 2023, which saw an improvement around the holidays, or like 2024 when there was a late decline.

Oct 8, 2025

Specialized nursing drives healthcare job growth

As the U.S. labor market slows, healthcare remains one of the few bright spots for job growth. However, the gains are not evenly distributed across the industry. Specialized nursing openings increased 8% from Q1 to Q2 and are up 27% YoY. Physicians were the only other role to add jobs in 2025, though total physician openings in Q2 were still down 11%, compared to 2024.

Sep 30, 2025

Most candidates still turn to job boards before recruiters

The percentage of candidates working with recruiters dropped from 45% last year to just 35% this year. Among Gen Z, only 26% of candidates now turn to recruiters first. With job boards using AI to attract talent around the clock, competition is tougher than ever; however, recruiters can stay ahead by pairing always-on AI with the personal connection job boards lack. Read the GRID 2025 Talent Trends Report to learn more.

Sep 23, 2025

Contract workers remain crucial in the tech space

After a dip in late 2024, permanent contracts in IT are gradually recovering, with job openings rising 6% from Q1 to Q2 2025. But the technology sector remains heavily dependent on temporary contract workers, whose job openings grew 27% over that same time period. With the ongoing economic uncertainty and fluctuating tech investments, employers continue to rely on the flexibility of short- and long-term IT contractors and are likely to maintain this approach in the foreseeable future.

Sep 16, 2025

Leisure and hospitality job openings reflect economic weakness

Despite reports of declining tourism in Las Vegas, job openings in food service and accommodations are actually on the rise. Among the nation’s largest job markets, only Las Vegas and Chicago can make that claim. This comes as the Bureau of Labor Statistics has revised jobs numbers downward, highlighting greater weakness in the retail sector than previously understood.

Sep 9, 2025

US manufacturing holds steady amid shifting trade policy

Despite new tariff policies, manufacturing jobs have remained stable throughout the year, even ticking upwards since the summer. Transportation job openings have also held steady. While both sectors are still down year over year (21% in manufacturing and 36% in transportation), the feared sharp decline in transportation has not materialized. It’s still unclear whether tariffs will drive reshoring in the long term, potentially creating more job opportunities in the sector.

Sep 2, 2025

Higher-salary job openings are outpacing other opportunities

Across the country, jobs openings with salaries over $60,000 have been increasing as a percentage of total job openings over the last four years, with the higher-than-median jobs becoming the majority by 2023.

Aug 26, 2025

Job openings at large companies are shrinking faster than at smaller firms

The percentage of job openings at the largest companies has dropped considerably over the past year, reflecting the recent trend toward layoffs and hiring slowdowns at America’s largest companies, including Walmart, Amazon, Microsoft, and Procter & Gamble.

Aug 19, 2025

Remote work is here to stay

Job openings offering remote work fell to a two-year low in Q4 2024, but have recently begun to rise, likely reflecting candidates’ continued resistance to back-to-office mandates. In Q2 2025, 11.5% of job openings allowed remote work, up from 9.1% in Q1.

Aug 12, 2025

AI skills in job openings more than doubled in early 2025

The number of job openings mentioning “agentic” jumped 2.6x from Q1 to Q2 2025 — and were nearly 50x higher than in Q2 2024. “Agentic” roles grew tenfold in governance, twentyfold in education, and nearly 100x in sales.

Aug 5, 2025

Ethics and diplomacy top list of emerging skills in US job openings

Ethics and diplomacy are among the top emerging skills sought in US job listings in early 2025, whereas improvisation and confrontational skills are appearing less frequently. This may reflect the increase in AI roles, which has led to a heightened focus in AI ethics. The rising demand for diplomacy could also signal a broader push for alignment and collaboration in an increasingly polarized environment.

Jul 29, 2025

Job openings continue to rise across most U.S. states

Job openings rose in 44 out of 50 states from Q1 2025 and Q2. Rhode Island topped the list for largest percentage growth in job postings, with several other smaller states also ranking in the top 10.

Jul 22, 2025

Job opportunities are increasing for high school and trade school grads

After peaking in 2022, fewer US jobs require a Bachelor’s Degree in recent years. And jobs requiring a high school degree make up a greater percentage of available opportunities as reflected in Bullhorn’s Market IQ database. This aligns with a recent survey by the American Staffing Association which found 1/3 of Americans would recommend trade school to high school graduates rather than college.

Jul 15, 2025

Part-time roles continue to gain ground in the U.S. labor market

In the past four years, part-time job openings have doubled as a percentage of total job postings, accounting for more than 17% of all available roles in Q1 2025. This may signal that employers are prioritizing workforce flexibility and cost efficiency. It likely also reflects the continued strength of retail and hospitality sectors, which traditionally rely on large numbers of part-time employees. This aligns with trends in the staffing industry, where employers are retaining contracts, while scaling back individual hours, preserving labor capacity while controlling costs.

Jul 8, 2025

More than anything, candidates want recruiters to land them the right jobs — fast

Even in the age of AI, candidates still value the personal touch, especially when it comes to guiding them to the right role.

“The technology piece is certainly great to use in the beginning, but really our clients are paying us to do that face to face….getting an opinion of their EQ, their social skills, their ability to fit into a certain office setting.”

— Staffing industry executive interviewed by Bullhorn

More than anything, candidates want recruiters to land them the right jobs — fast

Jul 1, 2025

Reskilling drives strong candidate loyalty

With technology and the nature of work changing rapidly, reskilling has become a crucial focus for staffing firms — and it pays off in candidate loyalty.

[We have] a group we’ve just developed which is really around upskilling and reskilling workers based on what organizations are looking for in terms of skills gaps…[and] upskilling is not just technical — one of the number one coveted skills in [our research] last year was critical thinking skills.