Recruiter.com Group Inc., a sector leader in on-demand recruiting solutions, said candidate sentiment has improved for a second month in a row after a long period of staying flat or declining.
Announcing the results of its Recruiter Index for October, the company said candidates are continuing to prioritize compensation (30%), remote work (27.2%), work-life balance (23.9%), and new experiences (14.7%).
Backfill roles are up from September's survey and have officially overtaken new roles, it added. For the first time, recruiters reported that most of their roles (53%) were backfill, compared to 47% brand-new.
READ: Recruiter.com's monthly Recruiter Index improves for the first time in ten months
Referring to US non-farm payroll numbers, released by the Labor Department last week, Recruiter.com CEO Evan Sohn said: "We're very excited about the 531,000 jobs that were added last month, but if you look at where we were a year ago, October 2020, we actually added 638,000 jobs … so there were more jobs added last year with no vaccine, no covid pill, mask mandates everywhere than we had now."
Recruiter.com noted that candidate volumes continue to increase, with 31.5% of recruiters saying their jobs are getting more applicants now, up from 26% last month.
When recruiters were asked what roles they see the most demand for, the index revealed that the top 10 included:
- IT/software engineering: 31% (-4 from September)
- Healthcare/Medical: 17% (+2 from Sept.)
- Recruiting/Staffing: 15% (-6 from September)
- Accounting/auditing: 11% (+1 from September)
- Architecture/engineering: 11% (+5 from September)
- Business services: 10% (+0 from September)
- Sales: 10% (+10 from September - biggest jump)
- Pharmaceutical / Biotech: 9% (+1 from September)
- Automotive: 8% (+5 from September)
- Restaurants / food and beverage: 8% (-2 from September)
According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics' new report, the unemployment rate edged down to 4.6% in October. The company said this could both be a result of seasonal hiring.
“While candidate volume increases, we found a decline in available hybrid roles by nine percentage points,” the company said. “Even with the decrease they still continue to outpace remote roles.”
Recruiter.com is an online hiring platform delivering on-demand recruiting technology and services to both large and small businesses. With AI and video technology, and the world's largest network of recruiters, Recruiter.com delivers on-tap recruiting that flexes with hiring needs.
Contact the author at stephen.gunnion@proactiveinvestors.com