Recruiting has been a volatile occupation since the pandemic began, and while there has been some steadying over the last several months, labor market uncertainty seems to be the new normal.

Challenges include low unemployment, talent scarcity for certain roles and more open jobs than available workers, but the situation is slowly becoming more favorable for employers, according to recruiters.

In Employ Inc.’s annual Recruiter Nation Survey, talent acquisition professionals said that applicant volume in 2023 was up from the previous year, and recruiting—while still stressful—was not as fraught as the year before. Slightly over half (53 percent) of recruiters said their job was more stressful in 2023 than in the previous year, but that number had been as high as 65 percent in 2022.

Employ Inc. is a talent acquisition software and services company in Boston and the parent company of JazzHR, Lever, Jobvite and NXTThing RPO. The Recruiter Nation Survey report is based on an analysis of recruiting data from over 21,000 Employ customers and a survey of 1,200 recruiters conducted by Zogby Analytics in September 2023.

“Recruiters and talent teams have been faced with volatility from an uncertain economy, shrinking workforce and slowing job market in 2023, compared to previous years, but overall, talent professionals are still optimistic about the future of talent acquisition,” said Pete Lamson, CEO of Employ. “Data shows that applications per job are up over the last year across companies of all sizes, and more than half of recruiters expect their teams to grow in the next year, with nearly two-thirds expecting their recruiting budgets to increase.”

Whether companies are growing or slowing down, talent acquisition teams are being asked to do more with less based on the current economic uncertainty, said George LaRocque, founder and principal analyst at WorkTech, an analyst and advisory services firm in the New York City area.

“Yet, while the economy may have been cooling, in the labor market the available talent and required skills remain more complicated to find than ever,” he said. “Today’s recruiting challenges are the same as those previously associated with competition during times of strong economic growth.”

Here are some of the Employ report’s key findings as recruiters look ahead to what is expected to be another year of volatility in 2024.

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