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Every hiring team is working harder this year. The question is what that effort is actually buying them.
The Hire Standard is the bi-annual look at UK recruiting performance, from Greenhouse. This edition covers 561 organisations, 7.3 million applications, and 40,096 hires made YTD through August 2026. It takes 183 applications to make one hire, the average opening stays open 56 days, and a third of openings close with no one hired at all.
UK candidates get further than most: about 10% of applicants reach an assessment and about 5% reach a first interview. But of those who make it that far, only 1 in 10 actually get hired.
Applied
Assessment
First interview
Offered
Hired
applications per hire
days to fill a role
openings unfilled
Although the UK struggles with closing rates, this metric was the strongest gain of the year. This shows that recruiters are getting sharper at closing even while the earlier stages of the funnel stay tight.
Closing rate
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The Hire Standard lays out three things UK hiring teams should take into account as they fix the conversion gap: where in the process candidates stall, how long each stage really takes and what’s driving the drop between assessment and offer.
Dig into The Hire Standard for the full benchmarks, insights from hiring expert Sean Delea and where structured, human-in-the-loop technology can close that gap.
