Job market data
Hiring and job market numbers from statistics offices and hiring platforms, each traced to the organisation that published it, plus Litjob's own weekly data on the skills job ads ask for. We also checked four statistics job seekers hear all the time.
Sources last checked 15 October 2026 · Updated every quarter
More competitive than three years ago. Job seekers are sending more applications, often with AI help, while openings have fallen, so each role draws far more applicants: about 244 per role on Greenhouse in 2025 and more than 300 per hire on Ashby.
Applications per role rose 111%, from about 115 in 2022 to 244 in 2025, at North American companies using Greenhouse. Recruiters there handle over 400% more applications each than in 2022.
Source: Greenhouse Benchmark Report, North America, March 2026
Applications per hire have tripled since 2021, to more than 300 on average.
Source: Ashby, analysis of 100M+ applications and 200,000 jobs, May 2026
There were 2.5 unemployed people for every vacancy in the UK in May to July 2026, unchanged since July to September 2025.
Source: Office for National Statistics, Vacancies and jobs in the UK, September 2026 release
The euro area job vacancy rate fell to 2.1% in Q2 2026, from 2.3% in Q1 2026 (EU: 2.0%).
Source: Eurostat, euro indicators: job vacancies, Q2 2026
US employers had 7.08 million openings at the end of August 2026 and made 5.19 million hires during the month; the quits rate was 1.9%, a sign fewer people are leaving jobs to move.
Source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS), August 2026, preliminary
Usually a few months. In the US, unemployed people had been looking for a median of 11.5 weeks in September 2026. From the employer’s side, the median time to fill a role on Ashby is 60 days for business roles and 75 days for technical ones.
The median duration of unemployment in the US was 11.5 weeks in September 2026, up from 10.5 weeks in July.
Source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Current Population Survey, September 2026
The median time to first fill a job was 60 days for business roles and 75 days for technical roles.
Source: Ashby Talent Trends: Recruiting Operations Benchmarks (54M applications, 93K jobs, Jan 2021 – Mar 2026), May 2026
On both sides. Most US job seekers have now faced an AI interview, many without being told upfront, and a large minority have quit a process because of one. Employers increasingly ask for AI skills, especially in data roles.
63% of US job seekers have been interviewed by an AI, up 13 percentage points in six months.
Source: Greenhouse 2026 Candidate AI Interview Report (US respondents, n = 1,200), May 2026
38% of US candidates have walked away from a hiring process because it included an AI interview, and another 12% say they would.
Source: Greenhouse 2026 Candidate AI Interview Report (US respondents, n = 1,200), May 2026
70% of US candidates were never clearly told upfront that AI would be evaluating them; 21% only found out once the interview had started.
Source: Greenhouse 2026 Candidate AI Interview Report (US respondents, n = 1,200), May 2026
The share of US job postings on Indeed mentioning AI reached a high of 4.2% in December 2025. Postings mentioning AI grew by more than 130% from February 2020 to the end of 2025, while all postings grew only about 6%.
Source: Indeed Hiring Lab, January 2026 US Labor Market Update, December 2025
About 45% of data and analytics postings mention AI, compared with about 15% in marketing and 9% in human resources.
Source: Indeed Hiring Lab, January 2026 US Labor Market Update, December 2025
About half in the US and UK, and it varies widely by country: from 15% of job ads on Indeed in Germany to almost all of them in Japan.
United States: 51.8% of job ads on Indeed stated the pay in August 2026.
Source: Indeed Hiring Lab, pay transparency tracker, August 2026
United Kingdom: 59.5%.
Source: Indeed Hiring Lab, pay transparency tracker, August 2026
Canada: 57.6%.
Source: Indeed Hiring Lab, pay transparency tracker, August 2026
France: 45.3%.
Source: Indeed Hiring Lab, pay transparency tracker, August 2026
Australia: 29.5%.
Source: Indeed Hiring Lab, pay transparency tracker, August 2026
Germany: 14.7%.
Source: Indeed Hiring Lab, pay transparency tracker, August 2026
Unemployment rates sit between about 4% and 7% in the economies below, but they measure different things. In Nigeria, 93% of employment is informal, so a low unemployment rate doesn't mean good jobs are easy to find; its latest published survey is from Q2 2024.
| Where | Measure | Figure | Period | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States | Unemployment rate | 4.2% | September 2026 | US Bureau of Labor Statistics |
| United Kingdom | Vacancies | 702,000 | June – August 2026 | Office for National Statistics |
| Euro area | Unemployment rate | 6.4% | August 2026 | Eurostat |
| European Union | Youth unemployment (under 25) | 15.4% | August 2026 | Eurostat |
| India | Unemployment rate (15+, weekly status) | 5.0% | August 2026 | Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation |
| Nigeria | Unemployment rate | 4.3% | Q2 2024 | National Bureau of Statistics |
| Nigeria | Youth unemployment (15–24) | 6.5% | Q2 2024 | National Bureau of Statistics |
| World | Unemployment rate (projected) | 4.9% | 2026 | International Labour Organization |
| World | Young people not in employment, education or training | 20% (257M+) | 2025 | International Labour Organization |
It depends on the role. The top three for each kind of job, from 18,613 job ads Litjob collected in the last 90 days (updated 9 October 2026):
Data and AI
Software engineering
Design
Product management
Marketing
Sales
Every role and skill, updated weekly: the skills job ads ask for most, by role. Most of these ads are from the UK, the US and Europe.
We traced four of the most repeated numbers. Two have no published evidence at all, one is real but usually misread, and one has no source but happens to match today's data.
The figure comes from a 2012 sales pitch by Preptel, a company that sold CV optimisation; no methodology was ever published. Many applicant tracking systems (ATS) simply store and search applications. What’s true: if an ATS can’t read your file, your details can be lost, and knockout questions on the form do screen people out.
The number comes from Ladders’ eye-tracking studies: about 6 seconds in 2012 and 7.4 seconds in 2018. It measures the first skim, when a recruiter decides whether to keep reading, not how long they spend evaluating a CV they’re interested in. The same study found simple layouts with clear headings did best.
Source: HR Dive, report on the Ladders 2018 eye-tracking study
The number has circulated for over a decade, usually credited to Glassdoor, for example in a 2016 Built In article, but without a link to any study. Recent platform data happens to land nearby: about 244 applications per role on Greenhouse in 2025, and more than 300 per hire on Ashby. Treat it as a rough average; it varies hugely by role and company.
Sources: Built In, "You Have 249 New Unqualified Job Applicants. Are You Excited?"; Greenhouse Benchmark Report, North America; Ashby, analysis of 100M+ applications and 200,000 jobs
No study supports it. Career centres trace it to anecdotes, informal surveys and 1970s–80s job-search books such as What Color Is Your Parachute?. Referrals and internal moves do fill some roles before they’re posted, so networking helps; the 80% figure just isn’t evidence of how many.
Source: Fresno State Career Development Center, "Is it true that 80% of job openings are not advertised?"
Want to know what an ATS actually reads from your CV? Try the free ATS CV checker.
Quoting a number from this page? Please link to getlitjob.com/job-search-statistics and to the original source.
