Giles Heckstall-Smith – Director of Strategic Partnerships at Jobtrain – and Gary Towers – Talent Intelligence Director at Jobtrain – led a session looking at our latest Candidate Insights Report. It was a fascinating roundtable with great questions, interesting analysis, and a breakdown of candidate behaviour to help prepare for 2025/2026 hiring.
You can watch back the full session where we break down some of these stats by sector, or scan a quick summary of the key points below!
UK unemployment has climbed to a four-year high as the jobs market and wage growth have slowed down. In fact, unemployment figures are sitting at 4.7%. Payroll figures have fallen by around 178,000 in the past 12 months.
The slowdown is partly linked to rising employer costs. Cost pressures, especially the hikes in national insurance contributions, are causing businesses to pause new hiring.
So what are organisations doing to make themselves more attractive?
Over 200 companies and councils are now exploring a four-day work week. South Cambridgeshire District Council trialled it and found that output didn’t dip, there was a 120% increase in job applications, a 40% decrease in staff attrition and over £400K was saved in recruitment agency costs!
Is the four day work week right for you? It’s a big contributor for Gen Z!
Recruiters should align messaging around upskilling and transformation. Tailor job adverts to reflect the organisation’s journey, especially if it’s tech or AI-driven. 25% of vacancies were for new positions or related to the growth of an organisation. 72% of vacancies were because of a resignation, attrition, or replacement.
Agencies are reporting poor performance in 2025 in a challenging labour market. If job opportunities are dwindling, what does this mean for retention and promoting internal applications?
76% of new hires are external. 20% are internal. 4% are from a recruitment agency. Is the cost justified anymore?
1% - Promotion
3% - Salary increase
4% - Better employee benefits
4% - Desire for home-based/flexible working.
6% - Relocation
9% - First job since leaving education
16% - Career change
18% - Gain employment having been unemployed
39% - Career progression
Career progression is the stand-out reason why candidates are looking for a new role. Training and development, specifically, is what candidates are citing as the reason for looking elsewhere. This is especially true for Generation Z. As workers, they’re looking to build a career Swiss-army knife, building up a variety of skills from numerous organisations rather than sticking with one place of work for a long time.
We’ve seen a shift in workers’ attitudes to their current place of work. 73% say they’re committed to where they are currently. This is likely part of the current economic climate. With things being as uncertain as they are, colleagues are looking for stability. Good news if you’re worried about attrition!
63% say it’s important or very important to them. Don’t just offer flexibility – define it! Be explicit about hybrid days, hours, and what a working week looks like.
4% - Social media content posted by peers
5% - Glassdoor reviews
6% - Social media content posted by employers
7% - Experience of an organisation as a customer
9% - Referral by a current employee
21% - General web search
24% - Job board search
25% - Job alert / direct message
The good news is, the majority of candidates find you via channels that you can control. A quarter rely on job alerts and direct messages, so be sure to set them up if you have an ATS and use Talent Pools (or Jobtrain’s Talent Networks!) to supercharge your process.
Ask colleagues to refer you and promote roles on social media. Use exit surveys to make sure you leave on the best terms with leavers, and encourage them to leave a Glassdoor rating!
While some sectors like Accounting, Science or Engineering differ, phone applications still dominate overall. 70% of candidates apply via mobile – and if that’s what you’re faced with, you need to change your application forms to accommodate. 48% of applications take over 30 minutes to apply and n obody is going to write paragraphs to answer an open-ended question if they need to do it on their phone. Unfortunately, you’re inviting generative AI answers if you do that – so be careful!
Regarding AI, the stats are what you might expect. When asked how AI factors into the application process, candidates said:
- 10% use it for application form completion
- 14% use it to write CVs.
- 19% use it for interview preparation.
- 23% use it to research the job or employer.
- 34% say they don't use AI tools.
It's getting tougher and tougher to identify if a piece of writing is generated by AI. This is why we're big proponents of scored assessment forms and screening questions. Simplify your application process and focus on more objective, scored tools.
4% of candidates say they use AI a lot in their current role. 35% say they use it sometimes, and 61% say they rarely or never use AI. Are we over-emphasising the role of AI in the workplace? Is the bubble ready to burst? Or do we need to focus our attention on internal training so colleagues don't get left behind?
Track conversion rates by source, not just application volume (e.g. job boards vs careers site vs LinkedIn).
Redirect spend towards channels that produce hires, not just traffic.
Segment sourcing by sector. For example, use LinkedIn for STEM, but not for front-line social care or hospitality.