Recruitics Reveals Rising Recruitment Prices, Shifting Seasonal Hiring Trends in October 2024 Talent Market Index
Retail and Transportation Talent Attraction Prices Rise as Holiday Season Nears Differences in Seasonal Hiring for Retail and Hospitality Reflect Changing Worker Preferences
Recruitics, a leading recruitment marketing and AI analytics platform, today unveiled its latest Talent Market Index Report, offering a comprehensive update on talent acquisition prices and labor market trends for September. The new data reveals 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.
The October report highlights significant shifts in hiring patterns, driven by increased competition for specialized talent, preparations for the holiday season, and the effects of the recent interest rate cut. Conversely, 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.
“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.”
Shifts in Seasonal Hiring: Retail and Hospitality
In September 2024, retail and hospitality hiring trends underscored broader labor market shifts driven by evolving worker preferences and industry-specific challenges.
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- Retail: Talent attraction prices surged 57.73% month-over-month, which aligns with the expected seasonal hiring rush, but dropped 62.50% year-over-year. Retailers are seeing more organic applicants, reducing reliance on paid ads. With less competition for workers than in previous years, retailers are meeting hiring goals more easily, though a moderate uptick is expected as the holiday season approaches.
- Hospitality: Despite a 145.20% year-over-year rise in prices, the sector saw an 8.18% month-over-month decline following peak summer season. Staffing challenges persist due to the physically demanding work, irregular hours, and workers seeking more stable jobs in industries like logistics or warehousing. Even with rising wages, hospitality continues to face talent shortages as demand for travel and leisure rebounds.
Additional Sector-Specific Highlights
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- IT & Related: Prices rose 5.02% month-over-month and a significant 82.31% year-over-year, further highlighting the demand for specialized skills. Despite tech downsizing in other areas, companies are actively recruiting experts in high-demand fields such as AI, cybersecurity, and cloud computing.
- Healthcare: Prices decreased 5.39% month-over-month but rose 9.91% year-over-year, reflecting a cooling in the extreme demand seen earlier in the year. While healthcare hiring remains strong, the market may be stabilizing after pandemic-driven peaks.
- Finance & Operations: Talent attraction prices reached a 33-month high, with an increase of 7.69% month-over-month and 18.07% year-over-year. As businesses seek highly specialized finance and operational talent, demand in these sectors is expected to remain strong.
- Transportation & Logistics: Prices increased 54.41% month-over-month and 14.89% year-over-year, driven by high demand as businesses prepare for the holiday shopping season. The year-over-year increase reflects the sustained demand for logistics roles as e-commerce continues to grow.
- Sales: Recruitment prices dropped 8.13% month-over-month and 17.34% year-over-year. Sales hiring remains cautious, though positive recruitment trends in the future could signal renewed economic optimism.
- Light Industrial: Prices decreased 10.27% month-over-month and 14.21% year-over-year, as demand stabilized and employers scaled back some operations. However, further interest rate cuts could spur increased hiring in this sector.
Each month the Talent Market Index compiles and analyzes billions of data points from job advertisements and proprietary Recruitics data, tracking key metrics such as Cost per Click (CPC) and Cost per Application (CPA) across diverse job categories.
By providing insights into how these metrics drive recruitment trends, the Talent Market Index complements traditional indicators like the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ jobs report and ADP payroll data, offering a unique perspective on labor market dynamics.
Click for more information and access to the full report: Talent Market Index Report October Release.
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About Recruitics
Recruitics delivered the first programmatic job advertising solution and continues to pioneer category-defining technology for end-to-end talent attraction, conversion, and analytics. Recruitics puts AI-powered tools and data into the hands of industry-leading strategists to improve hiring outcomes for talent acquisition teams worldwide. With a best-in-class platform and a commitment to continuous innovation, Recruitics makes it easy for the world’s leading companies to attract and hire exceptional talent.
To learn more, contact us or write to info@recruitics.com.
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