Applying More, but Hearing Back Less: Nearly 3 in 5 People Worldwide Set to Look for Jobs in 2025 Amidst Challenges in Job Search

• Nearly 3 in 5 (58%) people worldwide plan to look for a job in 2025, yet half are frustrated by the job search as they say the process has become harder over the last year

• Against a backdrop of change in today’s job market accelerated by AI, almost 40% of people say they’re applying to more jobs than ever, but hearing back less

• LinkedIn is helping professionals adapt to job market shifts with new tools, and new insights on the fastest-growing jobs with the annual Jobs on the Rise list

Nearly 3 in 5 (58%) of people globally plan to look for a new job this year, yet half say the job search has become harder in the last year, according to new research from LinkedIn, the world’s largest professional network. Nearly two-thirds (64%) of global HR professionals feel the same, signaling a necessary shift in the way people will need to apply for – and land – a job in 2025.

Job market challenges

Job seekers in 2024 faced a sluggish labor market, with little movement. As 2025 approaches, one in five (22%) working professionals who were looking for a new job in 2024 are still looking for new opportunities. The tough job market is holding some back from making career changes this year, with 28% of people saying the job market is so bad they're not planning to look for a job in 2025. Although the global labor market is expected to pick up this year, people will still face tough competition. 

Professionals need to adapt their job search to break through 

Many people are applying to as many jobs as possible, but this strategy isn’t effective. In fact, 37% of job seekers are applying to more jobs than ever, but are hearing back less. Hirers are also finding the process increasingly challenging. Over one-fifth (22%) of HR professionals spend between 3-5 hours a day reviewing applications and 73% say that less than half the job applications they receive meet all the criteria.

Catherine Fisher, LinkedIn Career Expert, says, “It’s easy to see why job seekers are applying to more roles than ever, trying to break through the challenging job market, but it’s not working. Professionals need to shift their approach and be more strategic in applying for roles that match their skillset and look for ways to stand out.”

To help job seekers adapt their approach, LinkedIn is rolling out a new job match feature that shows how their skills and experience line up with open positions, helping them better focus their search on the opportunities where they’re more likely to hear back. With one click, job seekers get detailed insights into which qualifications they meet and which ones they might be missing so they can decide if they should apply. Premium subscribers will also get additional guidance with LinkedIn’s AI-powered tools to improve their resumes, cover letters, and see jobs where they are a better match.

More than half (56%) of people globally say they’re open to a role in a new industry or area, and 25% plan to learn new skills this year to open up opportunities. In fact, there’s been a 140% increase in the pace at which LinkedIn members add new skills to their profile since 2022. AI will continue to drive up the value of skills as it becomes relevant to every job in the future and woven into most tasks, according to LinkedIn’s just-released Work Change report.

Those looking to make a job change and explore new opportunities can look to LinkedIn’s Jobs on the Rise report for insights on the fastest-growing jobs over the past three years. Almost three-quarters (71%) of this year’s Jobs on the Rise roles are new to the annual lists, with Artificial Intelligence Engineer as the most common role globally. This emerging job appears on more than two-thirds of this year’s global lists, and takes the #1 spot in four countries – the U.S., Netherlands, Singapore, and the UK. This year’s ranking also spotlights an uptick in roles for security-focused engineering, travel and in-person service sector roles, as business-as-usual returns in many parts of the world following pandemic shifts.

 

Methodology

Consumer and Global HR Professionals Research: This research was conducted by Censuswide between November 27 to December 16, 2024 among 22,010 consumer respondents, and among 8,035 global HR professionals between November 28 to December 18, 2024. Markets included UK, USA, France, Germany, India, Spain, Brazil, Ireland, the Netherlands, Singapore, Japan, Sweden, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Australia, Indonesia, and Italy. Censuswide abides by and employs members of the Market Research Society which is based on the ESOMAR principles. Censuswide are members of the British Polling Council. 

Work Change Report: For every occupation in the LinkedIn occupation taxonomy we calculate the number of distinct skill groups added by at least 1% of members globally among those members adding a skill in a given quarter between 2018Q1 to 2024Q3. When comparing the breadth of skills at an annual frequency, we convert these quarterly values to annual averages. We then aggregate across occupations by taking a member-weighted average and excluded any occupation that had fewer than 100 members adding skills in 2018 (on average). The increase in breadth of skills between 2018 and 2024 is taken as the percent change in these annual, overall member-weighted averages. The pace of members adding new skills between is calculated as the cumulative annualized growth rate (CAGR) between the years 2018 and 2022 and then again between 2022 and 2024. The uptick in the pace of members adding new skills is the percentage increase in the 2018 to 2022 CAGR as compared to the 2022 to 2024 CAGR.

Jobs on the Rise: LinkedIn Economic Graph researchers examined millions of jobs started by LinkedIn members from January 1, 2022 to July 31, 2024 to calculate a growth rate for each job title. To be ranked, a job title needed to see positive growth across our membership base and sufficient job postings in the past year, as well as have grown to a meaningful size by 2024. Identical job titles across different seniority levels were grouped and ranked together. Internships, volunteer positions, interim roles and student roles were excluded, and jobs where hiring was dominated by a small handful of companies in each country were also excluded. Additional data points for each of the job titles are based on LinkedIn profiles of members holding the title and/or open jobs for that title in the country. 

About LinkedIn

LinkedIn connects the world’s professionals to make them more productive and successful and transforms the way companies hire, learn, market, and sell. Our vision is to create economic opportunity for every member of the global workforce through the ongoing development of the world’s first Economic Graph. LinkedIn has 1 billion members and offices around the globe. www.linkedin.com / mobile.linkedin.com