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There’s a major misalignment in the hiring landscape right now: While applications are abundant, employers say it’s becoming harder to find and hire the right people. And it could be due to both workers, as well as HR leaders, failing to focus on the right skills.
More than half of people plan to look for a new job in 2025, according to LinkedIn’s new Work Change report. And while the report found that nearly 40% of job seekers are applying to more jobs than ever, they’re also hearing back from employers less.
At the same time, nearly two-thirds (64%) of HR professionals say it’s actually become harder to find qualified talent in the last year. This could be due to the fact that while recruiters are getting more applicants, they are not finding the right skills listed on resumes. Around 73% of HR professionals say that less than half of job applications received meet all the criteria for a given position.
“We’ve got a skills mismatch that’s playing out in the labor market, and it is only going to be more true over time, because the labor market was built to look at jobs as titles, not tasks,” Aneesh Raman, chief economic opportunity officer at LinkedIn, tells Fortune. “When you look at jobs as tasks, and you start to understand their different skills, and how those skills are changing year over year, it creates a whole different way to match talent and opportunity.”
More than one-fifth (22%) of HR professionals are spending between three and five hours a day sifting through applications, and nearly two-thirds of HR professionals (63%) say there’s a mismatch between the skills job seekers have, and the skills their organization needs. And it’s not just technical abilities they’re looking for: 45% of hiring managers, the LinkedIn study found, say candidates lack soft skills.
Now that isn’t to say that the right candidates don’t exist. But it’s crucial that HR leaders don’t discount employees who may not check all the right boxes. Those entering the workforce today will likely hold twice as many jobs over the course of their careers compared to 15 years ago, the study notes. That means more candidates will have skills across departments or industries that encompass more than just a job title.
“Increasingly, people need to learn how to think and talk skills on both sides of the hiring process,” says Raman. “More and more of hiring conversations are about mapping skills against the job tasks as they change, so everyone should be going into every conversation about work in their career with a view of who they are by skills first.”
Brit Morse
brit.morse@fortune.com
Around the Table
A round-up of the most important HR headlines.
As the labor market cools off, the balance of power between employers and employees has shifted, with bosses coming out on top. Wall Street Journal
To help employees, Starbucks is offering catastrophe pay to baristas based in the L.A. area who can’t work after being displaced by the wildfires. Bloomberg
Conservative activist group the American Alliance for Equal Rights is suing McDonald’s in federal court, alleging that the fast-food chain’s scholarship program for Hispanic and Latino high-schoolers is racially discriminatory. Washington Post
Watercooler
Everything you need to know from Fortune.
Executive insecurity. Google’s former HR chief says that CEO disbelief that employees do the same amount of work when they're based at home is one of the main drivers behind the RTO debate. —Chloe Berger
RTO backfire. JPMorgan’s attempt to impose a strict return-to-office mandate is under scrutiny as employees discreetly discuss whether or not to unionize. —Christiaan Hetzner
Staying put. Fearing a crackdown on H-1B visas under the new Trump administration, immigrant tech workers are being advised to cancel overseas vacations and skip family visits. —Sharon Goldman
