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What a year! The past twelve months have seen a crazy amount of innovation and change in recruitment. And, despite the uncertainty of election year, staffing firms have shown resilience, seen growth and managed to adapt and deliver.
Recruiters have faced complex challenges and opportunities, including a significant shift in labor demand, monumental tech transformations, and a sharp uptick in candidate and employee expectations.
So, as we wind up 2024, what can we learn from the year’s trends, challenges, and milestones that we can apply to the year ahead?
The Labor Market and Economic Backdrop
The staffing sector began 2024 with cautious optimism despite the uncertainty of the election. The lingering effects of the pandemic had begun to wane, and many staffing leaders began the year expecting business growth.
So, how did the year shape up?
The US economy remained positive throughout 2024 despite some macroeconomic uncertainty. The election was always at the back of people’s minds.
Halfway through the year, staffing industry analysts noted an unsettling phenomenon: a decline in the number of temporary workers supplied via staffing agencies despite growth in the economy. This decline, which was attributed to various factors such as changing job preferences and the rise of the gig economy, posed a significant challenge to the industry.
In Q3, Deloitte reported how robust consumer spending, high business investment, and lower interest rates had kept optimism about the US economy intact.
The US job market stagnated in the final quarter of 2024. According to Bank of America economists, we are now in a ‘low-hire, low-fire environment.’ CNBC reports this comes “amid signs of labor market strength overall: Unemployment is historically low, for example.”
Job growth has been robust throughout the year but primarily concentrated in a handful of industries, such as healthcare, leisure, hospitality, and government. Speaking to CNBC, Julia Pollak, chief economist at ZipRecruiter, said employers have now shifted their policies toward retention and away from recruiting.
Talent shortages persist. The demand for flexible working arrangements, including remote working and gig economy roles, continues, especially among Gen Z workers.
The Skills Gap and Talent Shortages
Unearthing top talent has been a sticky challenge this year. While there hasn’t been a shortage of candidates, finding the right people and hitting the spot with hires has been continually problematic.
Throughout 2024, we’ve seen a shortage of people with the right skills and it doesn’t look like the problem will resolve anytime soon. According to a report by Korn Ferry, by 2030, more than 85 million jobs could go unfilled because there aren’t enough skilled people to take them.
Technological advances are partly driving this with a growing demand for new skills. In areas like AI, machine learning, cybersecurity and software development, demand for talent has continued to outpace supply in 2024.
Education and upskilling have become essential, as has skills-based hiring. Lifelong learning and upskilling are essential to individuals and businesses.
Prioritizing skills over traditional qualifications has opened doors to diverse talent pools and non-traditional candidates. As a result, an emphasis on skills assessments has grown in the recruitment space during 2024.
A Growth in Creative Sourcing
More recruiters are adopting tech this year to help widen and hone the search for candidates. Recruiters have had to get more creative in sourcing. Examples include:
- Broadening job board reach
- Better utilization of social media, especially, though not exclusively, LinkedIn (check out our strategies for attracting qualified candidates on LinkedIn).
- Leveraging professional networks and attending or hosting job fairs and industry events
- Refining and better targeting content
- Setting up an employee referral scheme
- Reaching out to potential hires online via forums and other digital communities
We know that plenty of employees have been looking for their next move and this trend continues. A recent survey found that six in ten employees want a new job in 2025. The challenge for recruiters in the future is how to find and engage with passive candidates, especially as businesses double down on retention strategies. Creative sourcing techniques have grown in 2024 and are becoming essential.
Learn how to optimize candidate sourcing here.
Meeting the Diverse Needs of a Multi-Generational Workforce
Workforce demographics now span five generations. Yes, you read that correctly, FIVE! It’s the most age-diverse workforce recruiters have ever seen, and this has meant recruiters have had to get used to navigating a wide range of experiences, values, and expectations, as well as develop communication styles to suit generational differences
Recruiters have met the challenge by:
- Getting into the heads of candidates and understanding generational needs better
- Understanding each generation’s unique tech needs
- Creating targeted recruitment campaigns and communications that resonate with the many, not the few
Tech-savvy Gen Z is flagged as the biggest disruptor of the workplace. They have different values and approaches to work than the generations before them. They favor professional development and prefer remote or hybrid roles.
A key trend for 2024 has been that employees increasingly value work-life balance, flexibility, well-being, and purpose and want to work for employers with values that align with their own.
Technological Transformation in Staffing
2024 has been a landmark year for technological advancement in the staffing industry. Here’s a round-up of the most significant developments.
AI and Automation
Daunting workloads for recruiters were easy targets for AI and automation, so it has been a pivotal year for the adoption of recruitment tech in this respect.
Technology is enabling recruiters to automate routine tasks, enhance the candidate experience, match candidates to jobs more quickly, and increase placement speed.
Read more about how automation has helped recruiters in 2024.
Data and Predictive Analytics
We’ve seen a massive shift in the use of data and predictive analytics within businesses and staffing firms this year. Those who have adopted the right tech have become better able to analyze historical data and more adept at forecasting recruiting trends.
Using data effectively is critical for addressing talent scarcity. Leading staffing firms are adopting a data-driven mindset and investing in the right technology to execute data-driven talent acquisition strategies.
Blockchain
Blockchain is increasingly being used to help recruiters verify candidate credentials.
Programmatic Advertising
Recruiters are using data to place ads strategically and automatically with programmatic advertising.
Virtual Reality and Chatbots
Recruiters are also embracing virtual reality and chatbots to deal more effectively and efficiently with initial screening processes.
The Use of Mobile
Mobile access to recruitment has skyrocketed. It’s firmly no longer a nice-to-have for recruiters; it’s essential. Mobile-friendly recruitment has become a crucial tactic for businesses and staffing firms.
These are just some of the major tech transformations that took off in recruitment in 2024. Read more on the top tech disruptors in recruitment this year.
Adopting Tech and Gen-AI
Earlier this year, we published an article titled “Is the recruitment industry ready for AI?” The most surprising revelation from that piece was that 45% of staffing firms still weren’t clear about what type of AI to adopt. In a webinar poll, we found that 62% of attendees already utilized AI in some way to help their workflow run more efficiently, but 38% weren’t using it at all. This is astonishing!
A fact that can’t be ignored is that fast-growing agencies spend more of their budget on software and technology and are more likely to have automated their recruitment processes.
Despite this knowledge, there has definitely been some stalling by staffing firms over tech adoption in 2024. Recruitment firms are often on the back foot because of:
- Competing priorities
- Costs
- Fear of disruption
- Worries about a dip in productivity while staff train on new systems
- Current system inadequacies are accepted
- Fear of change
However, increasing numbers of recruitment firms are upgrading tech to address several issues, which include:
- Poor hiring metrics
- Workflow inefficiencies
- Inadequate system development
- Lack of customization
- Fewer integrations
- Communication bottlenecks
- Mobile-unfriendly legacy systems
Read more on the things preventing tech upgrades and what you should ignore.
Summary
As we move into 2025, the lessons of 2024 offer the potential to meet the next round of staffing challenges head-on.
With so many unknowns around the corner, it is critical recruiters are poised and ready for anything. Staffing firms that can pivot fast, lean into changing markets, and utilize new tech will be most able to take on the challenges ahead.
Look out for our next blog (coming soon) on predictions and expected trends for 2025!
