5 Surprising Job Search Stats

Ever look for stats online relating to job searching? You’ll find them hard to come by – they are either dated or come from a select core of sources: U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Stats, etc., Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM), JobVite.com (a great resource, btw). So it’s always refreshing to see a new valid source of stats impacting your job search journey.

The following are stats which come from 2018 Clutch Recruiting Survey of 507 full-time employees. It contains some very interesting stats – which likely impact your job search – and certainly surprised us.

1.) Not a stat here; but a general statement from the report: “For most candidates, reading online reviews on Glassdoor, Yelp, Google and other review platforms is now an essential step in the process of finding a new job, especially once they secure an interview.” Just a comment – a lesson learned the hard way – your most accurate 11th hour information about a company is from someone who works there – pick someone in the sales team who can speak to you directly to answer all your questions about their work culture – online reviews tend to be more negative and out of balance with an overall picture of the company.

2.) 43% landed their role between 3 months and more than 6 months.

3.) 55% of candidates approaching a startup company received a job offer within 2 weeks of starting their job search. Wow – be ready to start yesterday!

4.) Unemployment rate is 4.1% - this is a 30-year low. I can’t even remember who our president was 30 years ago. . .

5.) 21% of candidates applied to 6-10 jobs before landing their new role.

Sampling data:

Over 500 employees: 35%

250-500 employees: 20%

Less than 250 employees: 19%

Startups: 17%

Other: 9%