Survey: Global talent works its way through low hiring rates
“While we’re still seeing a year-over-year decline in hiring, the rate of decline is slowing in certain regions and countries, which we can take as a sign of stabilization,” says Linkedin Chief Economist, Karin Kimbrough.
Global talent trends are showing a dichotomy of attitudes over the past year and a lead in to a potential slowdown due to hiring interest rates and inflation-fighting.
A new Linkedin Talent Solutions survey notes that hiring around the world continues to decline. In a sample of 20 countries, hiring has decreased from August 2022 to August 2023. The sharpest decline is taking place in places like Singapore and Sweden with a hiring drop of 28% but the UK, US and Canada are also high on that list with both 24% for all three countries. The areas with the lowest year-over-year in hiring rates were the UAE at 9%, and Indonesia at 5%.
“While we’re still seeing a year-over-year decline in hiring, the rate of decline is slowing in certain regions and countries, which we can take as a sign of stabilization,” says Linkedin Chief Economist, Karin Kimbrough. “I’m looking at this period as a gentle rebalancing in the labor market – meaning employers are hiring, but at a more cautious pace, and employees are staying put for longer.”
She adds, “Leaders taking a more cautious approach to talent acquisition now have the chance to focus on better understanding and developing their internal talent, thereby setting up their organizations to withstand future labor-market and macroeconomic fluctuations.”
And while general hiring rates are declining a sample of 11 countries show a year-over-year increase at which candidates have been applying for jobs. At the low end is the UAE with only a 4% increase, while at the high end are the US and UK with an increase of 18% and 23% respectively.
“While in some ways a high volume of candidates is positive, it also brings challenges to talent-acquisition work,” says Erin Scruggs, VP of Global Talent Acquisition at Linkedin. “I’d recommend that talent acquisition leaders take a magnifying glass to both their hiring principles and recruiting processes with an eye towards alignment and consistency across the organization. Hoping that hiring managers and interview teams know how to assess talent can be a losing strategy. Educating and training will lead to the best outcomes.
An interesting note in the survey is that Linkedin job posts that mention artificial intelligence or generative AI have seen 17% greater application over the past two years that job posts with no such mentions.
Compared to a year ago, most respondents to a Workforce Confidence Index have shown they are less confident in their prospects to progress their careers. France is at the bottom with a decline of 13% but bright spots include the UK at a jump of 1%, Brazil with an increase of 8% and Japan at 18%.
Related: Is your hiring process ready for global talent?
Finally, companies that help their employees build skills have higher internal mobility. Companies whose employees excelled at developing skills in the last 12 months have a 15% higher internal mobility rate than companies whose employees lagged.