It’s rough out there. Especially for salaried professional, management, and senior leadership job candidates. Few companies are hiring, and even for industries like healthcare that continue to be job creators, many large healthcare companies we work with are telling us it’s more replacement now than net new hiring.
For the past four weeks I’ve been meeting with employers big and small across industries reviewing their CandE Benchmark Research data with them. There are those that have been more resilient in their hiring, and not just in healthcare, but no one has disputed it’s rough out there.
The Worst Candidate Market In Recent Memory
In fact, I’d argue that, going back 25 years and spanning the Dot-com crash, the mortgage crisis and Great Recession, and the pandemic’s economic impact, all the technological impacts in between, and today’s volatile economic rip currents – this is the worst candidate market in recent memory.
And most professional and management candidates concur according to our 2025 CandE Benchmark Research, more so than hourly candidates.
This year, 14% of (salaried) professional candidates said they’d never engage a business again due to a poor candidate experience, which we also call the resentment rate. For management to senior leadership candidates, it’s 18%.
One quarter of the professional candidates in our research this year said they’ve been looking for a job for over 4 months. Same for management candidates. Again, it’s rough out there.
Tech Resentment Is Higher
It’s also not surprising that the tech sector has some of the highest resentment in our data from the past two years. We went from tech talent hoarding in 2021 when hiring roared back after the pandemic to people shedding ever since. Professional candidate resentment is at 20% in our data this year, and management / senior leadership candidate resentment is at 23% this year. That’s 1 in 5 and nearly 1 in 4 candidates respectively saying they’re not going to apply again, refer others, be a brand advocate, or make purchases.
27% of professional tech candidates said they’ve been looking for a job for over 4 months. 34% of management / senior leadership tech candidates said they’ve been looking for a job for over 4 months.
Compare that to healthcare where resentment is much lower – professional resentment is at 11% and management resentment is at 16%. Plus, 16% fewer professional healthcare candidates and 31% fewer healthcare management candidates said they’ve been looking for a job for over 4 months.
Resentment Calculator
If we just parse our CandE data by business-to-consumer (B2C) employers, overall candidate resentment is at 16%. And if we plug that into our resentment calculator along with three other data points, then we can see what the possible revenue impact might be.
For example, let’s say that your annual number of hires is 1,000 (you can plug your own data into the calculator).
And that your average applicant per hire ratio is 100.
And that your average annual value of a paying customer is $100. (Again, you can plug your own data into it).
Based on the above, the total potential hit to annual revenue would be $1,584,000.
Go ahead, give it a try. It’s a great way to get candidate experience business impact discussions going internally, even if you’re business to business (B2B).
Speaking of Business Impacts
It may be the worst candidate market in recent memory, but each year we work with many employers that are making their recruiting experience more positive and efficient for recruiters, hiring managers, and the candidates regardless of what the global economy looks like (or feels like). Those with near-to-above average CandE Scores, the overall NPS calculations we run on the data each year, are the employers that win our coveted CandE Awards.
We’re still reviewing, analyzing, and writing up this year’s CandE Benchmark research that includes many new CandE case studies, which will be out by the end of the year. In the meantime, here are some examples of improvements that had the greatest business impacts from our 2024 case studies:
Pay Transparency (D2L)
D2L’s decision to implement pay transparency across all North American job postings, providing narrow salary ranges, led to a reduction in offer declines due to compensation, dropping from 11 in a 2023 period to 6 in a comparable 2024 period. This transparency contributed to an 87% offer acceptance rate and 97% of candidates stating they would apply again.
Transforming Internal Candidate Experience (Schneider Electric)
Schneider Electric’s deep focus on improving the internal candidate experience resulted in a remarkable jump in their Internal Net Promoter Score (NPS) from 41.1 to 66.9, a +25.8 point increase. This is crucial for employee retention, engagement, and development.
Recruiter Workload Management (Room & Board)
Room & Board’s innovative “recruiting hold” strategy, establishing a threshold for open requisitions to prevent recruiter overwhelm, led to a significant improvement in candidate experience. Their candidate ranking improved from 35th in 2023 to 17th in 2024, and the time to fill for nurture candidates decreased dramatically from a standard nine weeks down to three weeks on average.
Community Engagement and Outreach (Northwell Health)
Northwell Health’s 140% increase in community events resulted in a 17% increase in total applications (23.94% external applications) between 2022-2023. Their Summer Talent Marketing Campaigns directly led to over 9,300 influenced application starts and 215+ hires, demonstrating a strong return on their community investment.
AI and Chatbot Implementation (GuideWell)
GuideWell’s use of chatbot monitoring and AI-powered tools for candidate search and personalized communications significantly reduced waiting times, streamlined the application process, improved engagement, and reduced candidate drop-off rates, contributing to a reduction in time-to-hire and costs.
Personalized Candidate Calls (Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota)
The practice of personally calling every candidate dispositioned after the hiring manager interview was highlighted as a unique and innovative improvement, leading to positive feedback and appreciation from candidates who preferred it over generic emails. This contributes to a positive employer brand and humanizes the rejection process.
Structured Interview Process and Training (Syneos Health & Family Care Center)
Syneos Health’s “Back to Basics” recruiter training and closer collaboration with hiring managers led to an increase in CandE candidate satisfaction scores and a reduction in time to fill by 4 days (from 25 to 21 days). Similarly, Family Care Center’s significant investment in hiring manager training resulted in positive changes in candidate feedback, lower drop-off rates, and better alignment of candidate expectations.