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September iCIMS Insights Report: Labor Market Warmed up at Summer’s End

September 30, 2022
 
iCIMS Staff
4 min read
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Like a quick dip in the pool on a hot summer day, labor market numbers cooled off between June and July and heated back up again in August.  

End of summer labor market numbers brought some good news for employers: job seekers are coming back, with application activity at the highest it’s been all year.  

But whether that growth is a reliable indicator of where the market is going, or inflated by part-time workers, remains to be seen.  

Read the full September Insights Workforce Report to get the latest labor market activity and hiring trends.   

 

Labor market activity 

Application activity was up 31% since January 2022, with employers receiving about 21 applications on average per opening – up 17% from the first half of the year.  

The drop between June and July might have been a reaction to media headlines of economic weakness and instability, or perhaps just a summer lull. With the exception of 2020, opening, application and hiring activity historically go down from June to July, according to iCIMS data, but increases from July to August.  

It has been a hot job market nearly all year and part-time employment might be driving some of the growth. The growth in part-time hiring has consistently outpaced the growth in full-time hiring since April 2022 and has been up 29% since the start of the year.  

 

The changing face of retail work 

Over the last few years, the retail sector has faced its share of challenges, with labor issues topping the list of retailers’ concerns. According to Deloitte, 83% of retailers are investing most heavily in employee recruitment and retention. 

iCIMS data shows hiring activity in the space trending close to 2021 levels. However, there seem to be more job seekers looking for work, with application activity significantly greater than in the last three years.  

 

Internal versus external job seekers 

With one in five workers planning to look for a job in the next six months, attracting and engaging these job seekers will be key for employers with open roles. 

But who is looking, and where? Following the dip in July, iCIMS data shows that applications from external and internal job seekers are back up 15% and 9%, respectively, since the start of the year. 

Attracting and engaging these job seekers will be key for employers with open roles. This is especially important for internal applicants – as they are spending approximately twice as much time on job portals compared to external candidates.  

 

Each month, iCIMS Insights provides a deep understanding of the talent market through data drawn from its platform, including employer and job seeker activity from more than 4,000 customers and hundreds of millions of data points across job openings, job applications and hires. 

Read the full September Insights Workforce Report to get the latest labor market activity and hiring trends. 

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