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Joveo's 2026 Recruiting Benchmarks Report Reveals Up to 9x Growth in Applicant Volume
Report uncovers a tale of two labor markets, with excess volume in some roles and real scarcity in others.
Published on Feb. 6, 2026
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Joveo, a leader in AI-powered recruitment marketing, has released its 2026 Recruiting Benchmarks Report, which offers a data-driven look at how the US labor market transformed in 2025. The report reveals a tale of two labor markets - one with a surge in applicant volume, and another with flat or constrained candidate supply, depending on the roles employers were trying to fill.
Why it matters
The report highlights the growing divide in the labor market, where some employers are overwhelmed with applicants while others struggle to find qualified candidates. This has significant implications for talent acquisition strategies, as recruiters must adapt to these divergent conditions to effectively source, engage and hire the right talent.
The details
The report found that certain occupations saw up to a 9x growth in applicant volume between November 2022 and November 2025. However, this surge in applications did not translate into easier hiring, as manual screening emerged as a bottleneck. Recruiters often hired from the first wave of applicants and never reached the best-fit candidates buried deeper in the queue. In applicant-flooded roles, employers also became more selective, raising experience requirements which reduced entry ramps and pushed up employer costs. Meanwhile, in jobs requiring licensed or credentialed talent, macro conditions did not create more supply, and recruiters still faced long time-to-fill windows.
- The report covers activity across 16 major occupations in all US states, representing millions of job postings and applications.
- The data spans from November 2022 to November 2025.
The players
Joveo
The global leader in AI-powered, high-performance recruitment marketing, transforming talent attraction and recruitment media buying for the world's largest employers, staffing firms, RPOs, and media agencies.
Kshitij Jain (KJ)
Founder and CEO of Joveo.
Hung Lee
Curator of Recruiting Brainfood.
What they’re saying
“Most recruiting benchmarks still describe the labor market as a single story. That's no longer true. Our data shows two labor markets operating at the same time – excess volume in some roles, real scarcity in others. This report helps talent acquisition leaders see where they're over-investing, where they're under-served, and how to adjust based on what's actually happening.”
— Kshitij Jain (KJ), Founder and CEO of Joveo (Joveo)
“It's become a consensus view amongst talent acquisition professionals that the surge in job applicant volume is increasing time to hire. The traditional hiring funnel in many cases can no longer operate under the volume of applications which are now standard per job post.”
— Hung Lee, Curator of Recruiting Brainfood (Joveo)
What’s next
The full Recruiting Benchmarks 2026 Report is available for download at www.joveo.com/recruiting-benchmarks-report-2026.
The takeaway
The divergent labor market conditions revealed in Joveo's report highlight the need for talent acquisition teams to adopt more agile and data-driven strategies to effectively source, engage and hire the right talent in an increasingly complex hiring landscape.
