What Do Job Seekers Want in 2023?

Candidates Want Employers to Communicate Openly and Honestly

Communication with employers throughout the recruitment process was a common theme in iHire’s job seeker survey responses. In fact, 95.5% of respondents want employers to acknowledge they’ve received their application, and 81.8% want employers to close the loop and inform them if they are disqualified from the job.

When asked what they believed to be an acceptable amount of time for an employer to respond to their correspondence, 66.1% of candidates said they wanted to hear back in less than 24 hours. And, a lack of response has consequences: 38.7% of job seekers said they would be less likely to interact with a brand in the future if they apply for a job and don’t hear back.

Candidates Want to Know Salary Ranges – and a Lack of Pay Transparency Can Be a Dealbreaker

Salary transparency is one of today's biggest hiring trends. Not only would 78.5% of candidates be more likely to apply for a job if salary was listed in the ad, but 44.7% also said they would not apply if the salary was not specified. Other elements preventing our job seeker survey respondents from applying include the location of the job (54.7%), a vague or unclear job description (38.8%), and a poorly formatted job ad (33.5%).

Candidates Want Employment Options Beyond Traditional Full-time Roles, Especially Part-time Jobs

Traditional full-time jobs weren’t the only type of employment on job seekers’ wish lists. While over half (51.7%) of employees desired full-time jobs, an even larger percentage (57.3%) sought part-time work. A portion of candidates were also looking for temporary jobs (17.8%), gig work (17.7%), and seasonal jobs (17.3%).