Dive Brief:
- Organizations saw about 50 more applicants per role in 2025 than in 2024, according to the inaugural Hiring Benchmarks report from recruiting software firm Employ. There were an average of 257.6 applications per job last year, up from 207.2 in 2024.
- Employ’s data, which examined trends across software and technology, business services, retail, hospitality and manufacturing, found it took an average of 63.5 days to fill an open position in 2025, down slightly from 67.7 days in 2024.
- The percentage of new hires still employed after three months was 84.6% in 2025, compared to 93.9% in 2024. However, first-year turnover fell to 12.1% in 2025 from almost double that amount (23.7%) in 2024.
Dive Insight:
The report comes as TA professionals say they’re under increased pressure to find suitable candidates to fill a limited number of available roles, with 42% of recruiters saying they’re being asked to fill roles more quickly, per recent LinkedIn research.
The average offer acceptance rate was 83.9% in 2025, up only slightly from 82.5% in 2024. Manufacturing saw the highest rates, at 91%, while software and tech saw the lowest, at 80.8%.
A previous Employ report found that new hires left jobs in the first 90 days because of a “mismatch in the hiring process” or inconsistencies between what they were told in interviews and the reality of the role.
The retention figures show “how critical the first 90 days are,” and that “once people connect with their teams and settle into their roles, they’re far more likely to stay,” per the report.
On average, there were 46.2 days between a candidate’s first interaction and an accepted offer in 2025, versus 45.7 days in 2024. The average number of days between a job posting and an accepted offer was 63.5 in 2025, compared to 67.7 in 2024, with small- to medium-sized companies taking an average of 83.5 days and enterprise companies taking an average of 51.7 days.