iCIMS April Insights Report: The talent market is heating up

April 3, 2022

 

iCIMS Staff

5 min read

The talent market is heating up – for employers, and job seekers. iCIMS’ data shows job openings, job applications, and hires were in sync last month, with activity up across the three leading talent indicators.   

“It’s been jumpy month over month but hopefully this is the beginning of a more long-term positive stretch,” said Rhea Moss, iCIMS Director of Data Insights. 

The April Insights report focuses on hiring trends in the health services sector as part of our quarterly industries installment and a look at what region is best for remote work.  

 iCIMS Insights provides a deep understanding of the talent market through data drawn from its platform, including employer and job seeker activity from more than 4,000 customers and hundreds of millions of data points across job openings, applications, and hires.   

Download the full April Insights report to help attract, engage, hire, and advance the talent you need now.   

 Monthly labor market activity

After a couple of false starts since 2022 kicked off, April might (finally) be the start of a hot job market. Job openings were up in March, 29% year over year, and job applications kept pace, up 24% during that same period. To complete the trifecta, hires were also up 31% since March 2021.   

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, we’re only 1% away from recouping the employment lost in the pandemic. However, there have been significant shifts in the talent market, triggering new challenges and priorities from employers and workers.   

Health services hiring trends

Health services employers continue to face challenges two years after the pandemic began. iCIMS data shows that at the close of Q1 2022, opening activity is up 56%, and job applications are down 11% from pre-pandemic activity levels.   

Despite this 67-point gap, hires are up 31% in this same timeframe. However, this may be a case of hiring to stay even. Healthcare workers are leaving jobs – and for some, the entire industry – in record-high numbers.  

Here’s how some of those healthcare numbers break down: 

• Employers in the health services sector, on average, receive 13 applicants per opening (APO).  
• Candidates for clinical roles are especially hard to find, and job openings for these positions in Western states receive the fewest applicants in the nation at 8.2 APO.  
• Applicants to healthcare openings for critical roles like nurses and therapists continue to decrease, down 33% and 25% since pre-pandemic, respectively. 

Healthcare candidates are making changes in where they submit applications online. Indeed and LinkedIn remained the top sources of applications for health care roles in Q1 year-over-year, and the two make up nearly 80% of all applications.   

According to our report, LinkedIn doubled in popularity during that same period with those candidates – rising from 12% to 25% – while Indeed dropped from 72% to 57%. Growth on sites like ZipRecruiter, Glassdoor, and Facebook remained flat in Q1 year over year and job seekers turned increasingly to Google, which rose from 5% to 9%.  

With healthcare workers in such high demand, employers need to retain their workers. “You cannot afford to lose a nurse because you might not find a replacement,” said Moss.  

iCIMS Opportunity Marketplace can help connect your healthcare workers to new opportunities and increase employee retention. Learn more here. 

What region is best for remote work?

Remote work also remains popular with job seekers across the U.S. More than half (55%) of employers offer flexibility, ranging from fully remote to hybrid work models (iCIMS 2022 Workforce Report). ​ Employers in western states are receiving the most out-of-state applications, but employers in Midwest states hire a more significant portion of their out-of-state applicants.  

Want to know more? Download the full April Insights report to help attract, engage, hire, and advance the talent you need now.