Talent market intelligence
The research layer for the talent economy.
Talent Atlas is the independent research firm for talent leaders. We track how the world hires, where talent moves, and the technology reshaping the market, and we put a verifiable source under every number. AI in hiring is one beat, not the whole story.
42 verified statistics · 125 cited sources · no number we cannot point you to.
Median time to fill across all roles
The median time to fill a role holds at about a month and a half, the broad benchmark hiring teams plan against.
01How the research is built
Three layers, from the deep evidence up to the headline number.
Every statistic on this site sits on top of a chain of evidence you can follow all the way down. We never publish a number we cannot trace.
Deep-dive reports
Long-form analyses of the talent market, each grounded in dozens of cited, primary sources. The full evidence, with method and limitations.
Read the researchKey takeaways
The sourced TL;DR of every report. The handful of findings that matter, each one carrying the source it came from.
See the takeawaysThe Index
The abstraction layer: headline statistics distilled from the research, each wired up to its source and down to the report behind it. Search, filter, compare.
Open the Index02The Talent Atlas Index
The talent market, in numbers you can trace.
A sample of the Index. Each figure carries an honest confidence label and links straight to its primary source. 33 of 42 are verified against the original publisher.
Median time to fill across all roles
The median time to fill a role holds at about a month and a half, the broad benchmark hiring teams plan against.
Applications per hire
It now takes roughly 291 applications to make one hire, a flood that reshapes screening economics.
Tripled from about 100 in early 2021.
Recruiters making skills-based hiring top priority
Three in four recruiters name skills-based hiring their top priority, the clearest signal of the shift away from credential-led selection.
Companies using freelancers or contractors
Roughly 76% of companies now use freelancers or contractors to build more adaptable teams, though the figure lacks a traceable primary survey.
Candidates abandoning an AI interview process
38% of candidates have walked away from a hiring process because it included an AI interview, with another 12% saying they would.
Global staffing market size
The global staffing market sits near $650 billion in 2025, rebounding modestly after a soft 2024.
Up roughly 5% from about $620B in 2024.
03The trackers
The talent market, tracked since 2000.
Six key metrics, measured the same way every year through two recessions, a pandemic, and the tightest hiring market on record. Official Bureau of Labor Statistics series, pulled from FRED, every point traceable.
Job openings rate
Open jobs as a share of all filled-plus-open positions. The cleanest read on how hungry employers are to hire.
- Peak
- 6.9% ’22
- Low
- 1.9% ’09
- 2001
- 3.2%
JOLTS begins in December 2000, so this series starts in 2001. The 2021-2022 spike to 6.9% was the tightest hiring market on record.
Annual average, 2001-2025 · United States · 2026 is the latest reading (April 2026), not a full-year average.
Quits rate
The share of workers voluntarily quitting each month. It is a confidence gauge: people quit when they believe they can do better.
- Peak
- 2.8% ’22
- Low
- 1.3% ’09
- 2001
- 2.2%
The 2021-2022 peak (2.8%) was the Great Resignation. The slide back toward 2.0% marks a cooler, employer-favored market.
Annual average, 2001-2025 · United States · 2026 is the latest reading (April 2026), not a full-year average.
Cost of talent
Average hourly earnings for production and nonsupervisory workers: the going price of labor, and the budget line every hiring plan runs into.
- Peak
- $32.31 ’26
- Low
- $14.01 ’00
- 2000
- $14.01
Wages more than doubled over the span. The 2020 jump is partly a composition effect: lower-paid workers left payrolls first, lifting the average.
Annual average, 2000-2025 · United States · 2026 is the latest reading (May 2026), not a full-year average.
04The market map
The recruiting and talent-tech market, mapped.
12 categories across four stages of the hiring funnel, from attracting candidates to operating the function. Open the atlas to explore every vendor.
Attract & Engage
Source & Discover
Assess & Select
AI Screening & Matching
8Resume parsing, candidate ranking, and AI matching of applicants to open roles.
Skills Assessments & Coding
10Technical, cognitive, and role-specific assessments, including live and async coding tests.
Interview Intelligence
4Interview recording, structured guides, scorecards, and conversation analytics.
Background & Verification
8Background checks, identity, references, and credential and right-to-work verification.
05Latest research
Research the market, not the marketing.
Reports, market maps, and buyer guides written by analysts, grounded in data, and free of vendor influence.
The 2026 Talent Acquisition Technology Market Map
A full map of the recruiting and talent-tech landscape across twelve categories, with positioning, ownership, funding, and the consolidation wave reshaping it.
State of AI in Recruiting 2026
How AI is being adopted across sourcing, screening, interviewing, and scheduling, separating real workflow gains from hype.
Staffing and Agency Tech: 2026 Outlook
How staffing firms and recruiting agencies are adopting AI, and where contingent demand is shifting.
06Our method
Research at the speed of the market, with the rigor of a source list.
We use AI to cover a market this large: to ingest filings, funding data, product changes, and thousands of practitioner signals. Then analysts verify, reconcile conflicting figures into one canonical number, and label what is measured versus estimated. The result is a research base you can audit.
Sourced
Every figure links to a real, resolvable primary source. No source-name-only claims.
Reconciled
Conflicting headline numbers are resolved into one canonical stat, with the variants noted.
Labeled
Each number is tagged verified, reported, or modeled. We never inflate confidence.
07Who we serve
For everyone betting on talent.
Talent & TA leaders
Benchmark your function and choose tools with evidence, not vendor decks.
Recruiting & search agencies
Track the market you sell into and the tools that move placement rates.
HR-tech operators
Know your category, your competitors, and where the white space is.
Investors & analysts
Diligence the talent-tech landscape with independent market data.
Get access
The latest research and data on the talent market.
Subscribe for the full market map, the research library, and the Index. Or request a briefing and we will walk your team through the data behind a specific decision.
- The complete vendor market map
- Every deep-dive report and buyer guide
- The full Talent Atlas Index
Request a briefing
For employers, agencies, and investors with a specific question.