HR leaders navigating 2026 face what the new Employ Hiring Benchmarks Report calls “planning for the unpredictable.” The report from Employ’s family of ATS solutions (Jobvite, Lever and JazzHR) analyzed data from 6,640 organizations across five industries to answer a critical question: What does great hiring look like today and how do we get there?

The answer isn’t what most HR teams expect. Rather than trying to improve every metric at once, the report makes a case for strategic focus on one or two high-impact changes.

Hiring in 2026

The report identifies four metrics that require urgent attention: qualified applicant rates, time to screen, screen-to-interview rates and offer acceptance rates. Each reveals different bottlenecks in the hiring funnel.

The data reveals overall shifts since 2024. Applicant volumes jumped 24%, from 207 to 258 applications per job, while time to fill improved from 67 to 63 days. However, not all trends moved in a positive direction. Early retention slipped from around 94% to 85%, while candidate experience scores held flat.

The report emphasizes that context matters. “When the market shifts, so do hiring benchmarks, and the teams that adapt fastest are the ones that win,” according to the introduction. Software and tech companies attract 369 applications per job on average, while manufacturing sees just 176. Enterprises move candidates to interviews in around six days, while small businesses take around eight days.

These variations mean HR leaders can’t simply copy another organization‘s playbook. They need to understand their own metrics first.

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