Why 2025 Hiring Trends May Be Better Than They Appear

Article

By Katie Merritt, Senior Research and Data Manager, Robert Half

The last two years have seen economic uncertainty dominate sentiment around the U.S. labor market. It’s prompted many employers to take a slow and cautious approach to hiring, sometimes at the risk of losing top candidates. It’s also led to professionals putting job search plans on hold.

As for the talent recruitment outlook for 2025, things appear to be shifting, with more employers expressing confidence about hiring. For example, survey data from Robert Half finds 63% of companies are planning to expand their workforce this year—especially businesses aiming to staff up their legal (71%), nonclinical healthcare (70%), marketing (68%) and finance (65%) teams.

Business confidence on the upswing

Owners of small and midsize businesses are also feeling good about the year ahead. The NFIB Small Business Optimism Index recently posted the largest two-month increase in its 39-year history, reaching levels not seen in more than six years. The percentage of owners expecting the economy to improve also rose to 52%, the highest since 1983.

Rising business confidence is conducive to better hiring urgency, accelerated project demand and reprioritization of deferred growth initiatives. And while January’s job gains fell short of economists’ forecasts, separate data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) shows that 7.6 million jobs were sitting open in the U.S. at the end of December.

The BLS also noted in the January jobs report that the number of jobs created by U.S. Employers in November and December was 100,000 higher than previously reported.

These dynamics help set the stage for increased optimism about hiring in 2025—and an expectation that the demand for skilled talent will remain high in the months ahead.

While there has been a slight easing in the tightness of the labor supply in recent months, the overall unemployment rate in the U.S. stands at 4.0% as of January 2025. That’s the lowest level since May 2024. The unemployment rates for college graduates and those with in-demand skills in fields like finance and accounting and tech and IT are trending even lower.

Read our January 2025 Labor Market Update.

Where growth is so far in 2025—and what the top jobs are

So, what’s driving payroll expansion? Where is it happening the most, and for what types of roles? The latest edition of Robert Half’s Demand for Skilled Talent report* helps answer these questions.

For instance, AI and automation initiatives, customer experience and satisfaction, and compliance are all among the top strategic priorities for leaders in 2025. However, four in 10 managers say skills gaps on their teams are the most significant barrier to success, while 85% of managers report they are currently hiring to address these gaps. And many of the skills they need to recruit—like financial planning and analysis (FP&A), data science, marketing automation, and data analytics—are critical to their success in today’s business climate.

Here are some highlights of the most in-demand roles based on 400,000 positions posted during Q2 2024 on more than 8,000 independent job boards and company websites.

Top jobs in Q4 2024

Software engineer/developer: +74,000 jobs

Customer service specialist: +70,400 jobs

Administrative assistant: +46,100 jobs

Project manager: +39,500 jobs

Office manager: +19,400 jobs

Staff and senior accountants: +17,600 jobs

Marketing manager: +9,800 jobs

Systems administrator: +9,700 jobs

Work flexibility: the key to improving employers’ recruitment outlook?

View the report

The hiring environment is likely to remain competitive in 2025. Robert Half’s research found that only 29% of professionals are already looking for or planning to seek a new position in the first half of this year.

For those actively job hunting, the desire for more work flexibility is a top motivator for their search. Nearly half (48%) of job seekers surveyed said they would like to find a hybrid role, while over a quarter (26%) said they would prefer a fully remote job.

What does this mean for hiring managers? If your business is staffing hybrid positions, you may have an edge when recruiting skilled talent. According to our blog on remote work statistics and trends, only 23% of new jobs are being offered as hybrid roles—yet half of all job seekers are targeting this subset of jobs. In a Robert Half survey, only about a quarter (26%) of professionals said they are interested in in-office jobs, which make up 61% of all postings in Q4 2024.

With this math, it isn’t surprising hiring managers cite the ability to offer hybrid jobs as a key strategy for staffing critical roles within their departments.

Check out the Demand for Skilled Talent report right now on the Robert Half website. Also, stay tuned for future posts on our blog highlighting 2025 hiring trends.

*Report methodology: Our analysis is based on complementary sources such as survey data of adult office workers in the U.S. and job posting data from thousands of company websites and job boards provided by Textkernel and TalentNeuron.

Follow Katie Merritt on LinkedIn.

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