In 2022, amid the tail end of the pandemic and the Great Resignation, SHRM Thought Leadership reported the highest percentage of employers experiencing recruiting difficulties for their full-time regular positions, with 91% saying they were having difficulties. While that difficulty has since decreased, in 2025, nearly 7 in 10 organizations (69%) are still reporting difficulties recruiting for full-time regular positions, on par with 2016.
Although the landscape continues to improve for some employers, it remains difficult for others, suggesting that the road ahead will continue to be rocky. Perhaps more importantly, these trends point to a growing impetus for employers to adapt their recruitment and talent strategies and consider new approaches if they are to meet their talent needs in this changing landscape.
KEY FINDING NO. 1
Understanding Recruitment Roadblocks: Supply, Skills, and Salary Challenges
SHRM Thought Leadership asked HR professionals about the factors contributing to current recruitment difficulties their organization is experiencing and found the challenges fall into three major categories: supply and demand challenges, skills challenges, and compensation and benefits challenges.
Among organizations experiencing recruitment difficulties in the last 12 months, SHRM data shows the greatest challenges are supply- and demand-related, with 51% reporting a low number of applicants, 50% reporting strong competition from other employers, and 41% reporting an increase in candidate “ghosting” (i.e., applicants suddenly ending all communication without an explanation). These are the same top three recruiting challenges organizations reported three years ago in 2022 and one year ago in 2024.
Organizations are also navigating challenges tied to the qualifications of job candidates. In SHRM’s 2024 Talent Trends report, 75% of organizations struggled to fill full-time roles, attributing much of the difficulty to technical and soft-skill gaps among applicants. This reflects broader shifts in the world of work, where rapid technological advancement and new job requirements have created a gap between workforce readiness and employer needs. These gaps can extend onboarding timelines, inflate training budgets, and blunt overall productivity as teams struggle to deploy new technologies or processes. Left unaddressed, skills gaps can also limit career paths, fuel turnover, and complicate succession planning. From a financial perspective, organizations may face higher recruiting costs and delayed time to market on strategic initiatives when critical expertise is missing. Looking forward, organizations embracing skills-first hiring and targeted development programs can reduce skills gaps, bolster workforce readiness, and strengthen organizational resilience.
The compensation and benefits challenges likely don’t come as a surprise to most given the demand seen in the market for things such as higher pay and flexible work over the past five years. The pandemic urged the necessity for remote work and showed it was possible on a larger scale than before, and the prevalence of hybrid work schedules has grown over time. There’s still demand for flexible work of various kinds among workers, and organizations that offer this flexibility are having an easier time in the market.
Expected wage increases are also top of mind to U.S. workers. SHRM pulse data found that in December 2024, close to half (46%) of U.S. workers expressed at least moderate concern about the impact of inflation on the value of their compensation. One-fourth of U.S. workers (25%) did not receive a cost-of-living adjustment in 2024, yet nearly all U.S. workers (98%) said they need a cost-of-living adjustment in 2025.
What This Means for Your Organization
Although recruiting difficulties for full-time positions have eased since 2024, nearly 7 in 10 organizations still report difficulty filling roles. The persistent shortfall in applicant numbers, competition among employers, and rising ghosting rates mean that traditional job posting and resume-screening methods are no longer sufficient. To break through this environment, organizations must rethink their approach and market themselves more effectively, both through a compelling employer brand and by highlighting their culture, career growth paths, and total rewards. In practice, this means investing in employee testimonials, transparent career ladders, and benefits that truly resonate with today’s workforce.
In an era of budget constraints and rising pay expectations, organizations must reimagine their total rewards strategy. Many are losing out on top talent by offering uncompetitive pay, inflexible work arrangements, and compensation packages that fall short of applicant expectations. While significant pay increases, remote work options, or entirely new benefits programs may not always be feasible, organizations that cannot match the highest market rates can still stay competitive by adopting alternative strategies. A recent report from SHRM Thought Leadership and Fidelity Investments, From Turnover to Tenure: Insights for Retaining Deskless Workers, suggests that other flexible approaches, such as employee input in schedules, consistent hours, and predictable shifts, can be highly effective at meeting both employee and business needs. HR professionals can collaborate with leadership and people managers to explore additional methods to enhance workplace flexibility in work arrangements. Organizations might also consider implementing alternative work arrangements and nonmonetary perks, such as mental health resources and caregiver support, to attract and retain talent within budget constraints.
While sources of recruiting difficulties are varied, this data underscores that a key challenge for employers now and in the future will be how to differentiate themselves in a market where many organizations are vying for the same limited pool of qualified talent. To offset a chronically low applicant pool (51% reporting too few candidates), HR teams should build partnerships with nontraditional talent channels and connect with often overlooked groups via veterans’ networks, community colleges, disability employment services, and re-entry programs for people with criminal records.
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A recent report from SHRM Thought Leadership and Fidelity Investments, From Turnover to Tenure: Insights for Retaining Deskless Workers, suggests that other flexible approaches, such as employee input in schedules, consistent hours, and predictable shifts, can be highly effective at meeting both employee and business needs.
KEY FINDING NO. 2
Global Firms See Recruiting Challenges Ease More Than US-Only Firms
Organizations that only conduct business in the U.S. were more likely to report difficulty recruiting for full-time regular positions than multinational organizations. This marked shift from 2024, when recruitment challenges were similarly reported across both categories of organizations (77% U.S.-only versus 75% multinational), raises important questions. One plausible factor could be access to a broader, global talent pool. Multinational companies are often able to pull from a more diverse and extensive candidate base by expanding opportunities to talent markets in other countries, especially for remote or hybrid roles.
Additionally, multinational organizations may benefit from stronger employer branding given their global footprint, which can enhance their appeal to job seekers across industries. These organizations often have well-established reputations, making them more likely to attract top talent even in competitive hiring markets. Furthermore, operational efficiencies play a potential role. Larger, multinational companies might boast more streamlined recruitment practices, with centralized systems and advanced technologies that simplify and speed up candidate sourcing and hiring processes to meet the demands of their greater reach.
While these factors present plausible explanations, it is important to underscore that this study does not provide definitive answers. Additional elements, such as labor market dynamics in the U.S., variations in regional competition, or differing hiring priorities between multinational and domestic organizations, may also contribute to these trends. Further research is required to pinpoint the precise reasons behind such recruitment disparities.
What This Means for Your Organization
In 2025, U.S.-only employers face stiffer recruiting challenges than their multinational peers, a reversal from 2024 when difficulty percentages were nearly identical. Without access to global talent pools, U.S.-only organizations must become more intentional about standing out in a crowded domestic market. While global expansion is not a practical option for many, U.S.-only employers can still reach beyond local markets by offering remote or hybrid roles. By explicitly recruiting for territory-agnostic positions through nationwide job postings or regional satellite hubs, employers can tap pockets of talent in smaller cities or less saturated labor markets. Investing in a robust remote onboarding model ensures these hires integrate quickly, while equitable access to opportunities for both onsite and remote staff builds trust and reinforces engagement.
By expanding recruiting for remote roles, organizations can access candidates in smaller cities or rural areas where competition is less intense, and often where salary expectations are more aligned with constrained budgets. Organizations should ensure they are intentional about ensuring that remote employees receive the same visibility, development opportunities, and team integration as onsite staff to maintain productivity and morale throughout the organization. Even if a role requires partial in-office time, organizations can consider forming satellite hubs in areas with strong talent clusters (e.g., secondary cities in the Midwest or South).
Workplace Immigration and Foreign-Born Talent
This section highlights the role of foreign-born talent in addressing U.S. workforce challenges.
Furthermore, according to SHRM pulse data from March 20251:
66%
of HR professionals agree that increased immigration makes America more globally competitive.
61%
of HR professionals agree that increased immigration encourages economic growth.
According to 2025 SHRM research on foreign-born talent,2 at the turn of the 21st century, native-born and foreign-born U.S. residents had similar levels of participation in the labor force. Since then, participation among native-born workers has steadily declined, while rates for foreign-born individuals have slightly increased and now significantly surpass native-born rates.
1. March 2025 Current Events Pulse, SHRM, 2025.
2. The Role of Foreign-Born People in the U.S. Labor Force, SHRM, 2025.
KEY FINDING NO. 3
Skilled Candidates Remain Elusive
Seven of the top eight positions organizations have had the most difficulty filling in the last 12 months were in the top eight most difficult to fill nine years ago in 2016, with the one exception being protective service positions, which entered the list more recently.
High-skilled medical positions and those in the skilled trades have remained in the top three most difficult to fill positions since SHRM began tracking this information in 2016. This difficulty filling high-skilled medical positions is particularly concerning given the aging of the U.S. population and the associated increasing demand for health care services.
What’s contributing to these challenges?
- Employers in skilled trade industries (e.g., manufacturing, construction, and utilities) report challenges with candidates not having the right technical skills at higher rates than other industries.
- Employers in the health care and social assistance industry report challenges with candidate ghosting and candidates lacking the necessary credentials and certifications for the job at higher rates than many other industries.
The continued difficulties filling these roles over the last nine years means there’s a real need to identify new solutions to tackle these chronic hiring challenges.
In the manufacturing industry and the construction and utilities industry, the data shows a strong propensity for internally focused recruitment strategies such as training existing employees to take on hard-to-fill positions or expanding training programs to improve the skills of new hires compared to other industries. As mentioned above, these industries reported significant challenges with finding applicants with the right technical skills, so building talent internally will be a key solution to address these talent shortages. In terms of externally facing strategies, employers in the manufacturing industry and construction and utilities industry reported a higher reliance on strategies such as utilizing recruitment agencies and employee referrals to generate a talent pipeline compared to other industries. As employers in the skilled trades invest more in upskilling and reskilling their current talent, it’s also possible that this investment in their workforce’s growth and development helps bolster the success of word-of-mouth strategies such as employee referrals of their organization as a great place to work.
In the health care and social assistance industry, the data shows employers are expanding their advertising efforts, collaborating closely with educational institutions, and providing monetary incentives, such as signing bonuses, at higher rates than other industries. As this industry struggles to find candidates with the necessary credentials or certifications, accessible and robust partnerships with educational institutions to build programs that feed this pipeline will be a critical way to bridge the gap. This industry also reported higher challenges with candidate ghosting, so health care and social assistance employers may be leveraging monetary incentives at higher rates than other industries as a key recruitment strategy to keep candidates engaged throughout the recruitment and hiring process.
What This Means for Your Organization
The solution to overcoming recruiting challenges is not one-size-fits-all. While industries may face similar difficulties in recruiting for their open positions, the extent to which those difficulties present themselves varies. High-skilled medical roles and skilled-trade positions have topped the hardest-to-fill list for nearly a decade, presenting serious operational risks and financial burdens. In health care, long vacancies in nursing, therapy, and specialized technician roles translate into service delays, patient care backlogs, and potential penalties for quality metrics. Meanwhile, in manufacturing and construction, unfilled electrician, welder, and machinist slots halt production lines, delay capital projects, and force reliance on expensive overtime or subcontractors. These extended vacancies also inflate training costs when firms scramble to bring in temporary workers who still require onboarding and supervision.
Addressing these challenges requires a concerted focus on internal talent development and external partnerships. In manufacturing and construction, organizations are already leaning into apprenticeship models and in-house training programs to build technical proficiency from within. By investing in formal apprenticeships, co-designing curricula with local community colleges, and offering clear competency-based progression pathways, employers can cultivate journeymen and craft professionals who meet their exact needs. In health care, collaborating with universities and vocational schools to create “grow-your-own” pipelines (e.g., accelerated nursing tracks or allied health certificate programs) ensures a steady flow of credentialed candidates ready to enter critical care roles.
In further efforts to tap underutilized worker segments, employers can partner with veterans’ programs to recruit individuals with technical and leadership training (e.g., aircraft maintenance, medevac nursing) that often translate seamlessly into civilian skilled roles. Furthermore, employers can engage with local re-entry nonprofits to identify candidates who have completed vocational training while incarcerated (e.g., carpentry, plumbing), creating apprenticeship tracks that lead to full-time employment.
KEY FINDING NO. 4
Internal Talent Tools on the Rise
Over 1 in 3 organizations (35%) said they utilized an internal talent marketplace in 2025, compared to just 1 in 4 organizations in 2024 (25%). An internal talent marketplace is a technology‐enabled platform or system within an organization that matches employees’ skills, interests, and career aspirations with available projects, roles, gigs, and development opportunities, further enabling agile talent deployment, upskilling, and career mobility without the need for external hiring. For example, some internal talent marketplaces help create visibility into open opportunities within the organization by identifying internal talent based on their skill sets and matching them to relevant open roles.
What This Means for Your Organization
The leap from 25% of organizations using internal talent marketplaces in 2024 to 35% in 2025 potentially reflects a growing recognition that the best source of talent is often the workforce you already have. By centralizing employees’ skills, interests, and career aspirations on a technology-enabled platform, companies can dramatically reduce time-to-fill for open roles and high-priority projects. Instead of posting positions externally, managers can tap into their internal talent pool and identify qualified candidates for cross-functional gigs, special initiatives, or permanent roles within hours or days, rather than weeks.
Beyond speed, internal talent marketplaces foster engagement and retention by giving employees agency over their careers. When employees see clear pathways to new opportunities through roles on temporary assignment on a specific task force or a permanent lateral move, they feel valued and challenged. Integration with L&D systems further personalizes skill building: Once an employee identifies a target role, the platform can recommend specific courses or certifications, accelerating the journey to readiness. This continuous feedback loop matching employees to opportunities, continuous learning, and career advancement reinforces a culture of growth that can reduce attrition and keep high performers engaged.
However, technology alone is not enough. Implementing an internal talent marketplace requires rigorous skills taxonomy governance to ensure that competency labels remain accurate and up-to-date. HR teams must establish processes for validating self-reported skills. This can be achieved through manager endorsements or peer reviews and then integrated with the existing human resource information system (HRIS) and learning management system to ensure streamlined data. Equally critical is a robust change management plan: Senior leaders must endorse the platform publicly, managers must be trained on how to assess internal applicants fairly and effectively, and employees must be guided on constructing compelling profiles. When executed thoughtfully, an internal talent marketplace becomes a dynamic engine for leveraging the existing talent within an organization.
Organizations that find implementing a full-scale internal talent marketplace unfeasible can still harness its principles to drive strategic talent management. HR teams might start by adopting foundational elements, such as establishing a transparent skills taxonomy or creating informal talent-sharing programs within departments or functions. Even without sophisticated platforms, organizations can promote cross-functional collaboration by encouraging managers to share project needs companywide or pilot smaller-scale initiatives such as resource-sharing pools. These foundational practices not only lay the groundwork for a future internal talent marketplace, but also spotlight its value by demonstrating how leveraging internal talent can address pressing workforce gaps. For HR, the shift doesn’t need to be all or nothing; incremental steps toward internal mobility reinforce a culture of growth and collaboration while uncovering the untapped potential within the existing workforce.
RECOMMENDATION
Expand Efforts to Attract and Retain Untapped Talent
To address ongoing recruitment challenges, HR professionals should prioritize strategies that broaden talent pools. This approach not only helps fill critical roles but also strengthens the organization by leveraging diverse perspectives and skills.
- Partner with organizations that support often-overlooked talent, including veterans, older workers, and individuals with disabilities.
- Review job descriptions and hiring practices to eliminate biases and ensure that job descriptions reflect the essential knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics (KSAOs) required.
- Explore internal talent marketplace platforms to efficiently match existing talent skill sets with internal opportunities.
Resources
WEBINAR
Finding the Right Talent Through a Cohesive Hiring Strategy
HOW-TO GUIDE
How to Make the Most of Hiring Candidates from Underemployed Groups
ARTICLE
Building a Diverse Workforce Through Outreach to Young Talent
CONCLUSION
Organizations continue to face significant recruitment challenges driven by supply and demand imbalances, skills gaps, and dynamic compensation expectations. U.S.-only organizations report more difficulty finding talent compared to multinational organizations, highlighting the benefits of a geographically diverse workplace. Skilled roles, particularly in health care and the skilled trades, remain some of the most challenging to fill, exacerbated by strict credentialing requirements and technical skill shortages. Meanwhile, the rise in the use of internal talent marketplaces reflects a growing shift toward leveraging technology to create a more efficient marketplace for talent. To address these persistent issues, organizations must adopt various strategies, such as expanding talent pools to include underrepresented groups, collaborating with educational institutions, and investing in upskilling and reskilling efforts.
Methodology
The survey was fielded to a sample of HR professionals via SHRM’s Voice of Work Research panel from Feb. 3 to Feb. 12, 2025. For the purposes of this study, participants were required to be employed full-time or part-time for an organization and employed in HR. In total, 2,040 HR professionals participated in the survey. Respondents represented organizations of all sizes in a wide variety of industries across the U.S. Data is unweighted.
Reference List
- 2022 Talent Trends, SHRM, 2022.
- 2024 Talent Trends: Artificial Intelligence in HR, SHRM, 2024.
- December 2024 Current Events Pulse, SHRM, 2024.
- From Turnover to Tenure: Insights for Retaining Deskless Workers, SHRM and Fidelity Investments, 2025.
- March 2025 Current Events Pulse, SHRM, 2025.
- Realizing the Value of Untapped Talent for People, Business, and Society, SHRM Foundation.
- The Role of Foreign-Born People in the U.S. Labor Force, SHRM, 2025.
- Workplace Immigration, SHRM, 2024.