Help wanted
Over the last six weeks, I've done job reference calls for eight different people. This is a huge uptick compared to what I've done the rest of this year. Has something changed recently in the job market? To find out, I asked job seekers on LinkedIn to share their current experience. 288 people responded and here we are.
I surveyed respondents about how many jobs they've applied for, how long they've been looking, and how many replies they've gotten. I also asked about their industry, seniority, and job title, their demographics, and their geography. Finally, I asked whether they are looking for in-person or remote work.
tl;dr: I found a bunch of patterns. In particular: Your current experience varies a lot with your industry, your age, and whether you're looking for in-person or remote work.
1/ People hiring for in-person roles are more likely to call you back.
The majority of respondents prefer a remote or hybrid job setting to a fully in-person one. However, across industries, geographies, and demographics, respondents are hearing back from recruiters about in-person roles much more often.
In the 14 days before this survey, job seekers got responses for 23% of the in-person roles they applied to. Over the same period, they only got replies for 6% of the remote roles. This pattern held up across all regions in the US and Europe.
Maybe in-person recruiting operations are more effective. Or maybe in-person jobs are getting fewer applicants, so recruiters are statistically more likely to respond.
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2/ People in tech hear back more often when they apply. But they also spend longer on the job market.
Candidates in tech are getting recruiter calls about 24% of the jobs they apply to, compared to everyone else at 15%. I wasn't surprised that people in tech get more responses from recruiters.
Given this, I was a little surprised to see how much longer the tech people are spending on the job market than everyone else: at 7.8 months, it's almost twice as long as the 4.1 months spent by non-tech people.
I originally thought that this might be because tech people are more likely to be searching for a job while employed, but this didn't hold up in the data. 42% of job seekers in the survey said that they are currently employed either full-time or part-time, but tech workers didn't show up disproportionately in this group.
3/ Younger workers hear back from recruiters the most often. But they also spend longer on the job market.
I sliced the data by gender, race, age, and candidate geography. There was no difference in either response rate or time on the job market by gender, race, or geography. But candidate age made a big difference.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, younger workers are more likely to hear back from recruiters. People ages 25-34 hear back from recruiters twice as often as people 45+.
Given that younger workers hear back from recruiters so much more often, I was struck by how much longer they stay on the job market.
People under 35 stay on the job market 2.5 months longer than people over 35. Maybe older workers are more likely to get hired once they're actually in an interview process, due to their greater experience. Or maybe the 35+ crowd is simply more likely to take whatever role comes along, due to the greater financial obligations that often come with age.
The bottom line: The difficulty in getting hired isn't distributed equally. Ageism is real. In terms of factors you can control, you have a statistical advantage if you're going after in-person roles.
Thank you to the 288 job seekers who shared their experience for this data story! At the bottom of this mail, I've included profile links to a few of them who wanted to be featured in this piece, along with my best one-line summary of why you should consider them for your next open role.
Hang in there, job seekers. The right hiring team is out there.
Thanks for reading!
Kieran
Whatever you do, data storytelling skills give you a huge edge in this job market. Viral Data Stories 101 is for people who want to get great at telling stories with data. Includes a 1-1 consult with me to help bring your own data story to life!
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