Could you wait seven weeks to start a new job?
That's how long it's taking job seekers to go from submitting an application to their first day of work, according to new research from LinkedIn.
On average, entry-level workers are looking at a hiring cycle of about six weeks. For more senior roles, the average hiring cycle is seven weeks.
The data, which is drawn from approximately 178,000 confirmed U.S. hires on LinkedIn between April and June 2023, found that it takes over 57 days to fill jobs in consulting, finance, engineering, health care, management and sales.
Consulting has the longest time to hire at roughly 63 days, as these jobs historically include a rigorous screening process that includes group interviews and case interviews, where candidates are given intricate business problems to solve on the spot.
Marketing has the fastest hiring pathway at about 49 days, as it is a more general field and these roles are less specialized, which means that there is a larger pool of qualified candidates to choose from.
Hiring has slowed from last year's breakneck pace, but the news isn't all bad for job seekers, says Luke Pardue, an economist at payroll provider Gusto.
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"We could be in a much worse spot right now," he says. "The rate at which employees are being fired or laid off is at the same point where it was a year ago, which tells me that even if employers are a little less eager to expand their staff, they're also not actively cutting jobs."
Although a long-anticipated recession has yet to transpire, companies are still posting fewer jobs in anticipation of a downturn, Pardue adds. That, combined with the Federal Reserve's hefty interest rate hikes, has slowed hiring.
After layoffs and hiring freezes, tech and media jobs are still taking longer to fill, says Guy Berger, LinkedIn's principal economist and head of macroeconomics.
Berger is still uncertain as to whether, or when, hiring will ramp up in the U.S. — it could happen sometime in the next six months, he says, but for now, "we're in a holding pattern." Ultimately, he adds, "business leaders need to feel confident in the economy before they invest more money in hiring."
Still, if you're on the hunt for a new job, "you still have a lot more negotiating power than you did five years ago," Pardue says. "It's just not the same as it was in 2021 or 2022 ... the 'great resignation' is over."
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