The Hire Standard
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March 2026
Hiring got harder. Recruiters got better. Here’s how.
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The Hire Standard Benchmarking report provides a new look at how recruiters perform in this new hiring environment.
We analyzed data from over 6,000 companies and over 640M applications between 2022 to 2025 to understand how recruiters actually fared and what that might mean in the future, especially as AI continues to serve as a key lever for both candidates and recruiters.
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Applications surged while recruiting teams shrunk
Applications flooded pipelines while teams had to manage twice as many applications with half as many recruiters.
Increase in annual applications per recruiter
+412%
More applications
per job
+111%
Fewer recruiters per organization
-56%
The Hire Standard
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Recruiters outperformed closing and hiring rates
Recruiters vastly overperformed, hiring at more than twice the rate since 2022, despite high application volumes and a longer time to fill.
2022
2.2
Monthly hires
Monthly hires
2023
2.4
Monthly hires
Monthly hires
2024
3.6
Monthly hires
Monthly hires
2025
4.9
Monthly hires
Monthly hires
Increase in monthly hires per recruiter
+122%
2022
64.67
Jobs closed
Jobs closed
2023
67.60
Jobs closed
Jobs closed
2024
69.86
Jobs closed
Jobs closed
2025
69.76
Jobs closed
Jobs closed
Improvement in jobs closed with hire
+8%
2022
43.64
Time-to-fill
Time-to-fill
2023
47.12
Time-to-fill
Time-to-fill
2024
52.97
Time-to-fill
Time-to-fill
2025
59.67
Time-to-fill
Time-to-fill
Increase in time to fill
+37%
Recruiters work best when empowered by tools and processes
Experts in the hiring world, Tim Sackett, and Ariana Moon agree that high performing recruiting teams must adapt to this new normal with technology, process changes, and a human-centered approach.
For the complete list of benchmarks and expert insights, download the full report.
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