It’s no secret, unless you’ve been hiding under a rock or blissfully offline - that 2025 has been a tough year for recruiting. Budgets are tighter, teams are smaller, and every hiring decision now goes through the kind of scrutiny usually reserved for mortgage applications or first dates.
This week, Steve Bartel, Founder and CEO of Gem, shared their latest recruiting benchmarks report, link to Steve's original post on LinkedIn here. It’s built from an extensive data-set of 165 million applicants, 15 million candidates, and 1.2 million hires over the last four years (Gem, 2025 Recruiting Benchmarks). And the takeaway? It’s a reality check (the kind that makes you nod, sigh, and check your own pipeline).
Looking at the numbers, Steve sees a market that’s slowly stabilising - but you have to squint a little. Overall, hiring is up 8.3 percent year over year, but we’re still sitting 30 percent below 2021 levels. Tech is still down 40 percent from its peak. The bright spot? Smaller companies with fewer than 500 employees are bouncing back the fastest, only about 12 percent below 2021 (Gem, 2025 Recruiting Benchmarks). So if you’re at a startup feeling like you’re sprinting while everyone else is jogging, don’t worry, you’re not imagining it, you are.
Meanwhile, recruiting teams are feeling the squeeze. Average team sizes are down 14 percent since 2021, meaning today’s recruiters are juggling 40 to 56 percent more job openings and nearly twice as many applications (Gem, 2025 Recruiting Benchmarks). If you’re tired just reading that, imagine living it. This mirrors what I hear in conversations with leaders day-to-day. More applications, leaner teams, and finding the right candidate has never been harder.
Hiring has become more selective than a finding in December. Interviews per hire are up 33 percent, and time to hire has increased around 24 percent compared with pre-2025 averages (Gem, 2025 Recruiting Benchmarks). If you’re job hunting, the numbers explain why it feels like shouting into the void: just 0.5 percent of applicants get hired. One out of every 200. Statistically speaking, landing a tech job is now harder than getting into Harvard. No wonder offer acceptance rates are holding at 82 percent - when you finally get an offer, you grab it like the last sausage role at the Christmas party (Gem, 2025 Recruiting Benchmarks).
One of the most important takeaways? Your best candidates are not on LinkedIn, they’re already in your ATS. Nearly half of sourced hires in 2025 came from existing talent pipelines, up from 26 percent in 2021. For Engineering and Data Science it’s 48 percent, and for Design it jumps to 57 percent (Gem, 2025 Recruiting Benchmarks). Your goldmine is right under your nose, you just need to dig a little (no pickaxe required).
The UK labour market data lines up nicely with what Gem is seeing. The Office for National Statistics reports that vacancies in the UK were around 723,000 in August to October 2025. That’s up only 0.2 percent on the previous quarter but down 12 percent year on year. The number of unemployed people per vacancy rose to 2.5, up from 2.3 the quarter before (ONS, Jobs and Vacancies in the UK, Nov 2025). In short - more candidates are chasing fewer roles. That means more applications landing on recruiters’ desks, more competition, and even more reason to find the right fit quickly (and maybe stock up on coffee).
The Era of AI and Automation
Recruiting in 2025 comes with a lot of heavy lifting. Juggling dozens of requisitions, tracking what feels like, or might well be, hundreds of applications, sending reminders, scheduling interviews, and updating candidates. It is no wonder so many recruiters feel one missed email away from becoming a small puddle on the floor.
This is where AI and automation add real measurable and tangible value. Not by making hiring decisions, but by taking over the repetitive admin tasks that quietly swallow hours of the day. Automated scheduling, reminders, status updates, and stage communications keep things moving in the background so recruiters can focus on the human-centric parts of the job. And candidates still feel informed, respected, and like there is a real person behind the process.
So What Can Talent Teams Actually Do?
Automation with care
Auto-reject wisely: Use your ATS to handle early-stage rejections. Templates help, but keep the tone human and appreciative. Candidates are already facing a tough process, and a little kindness goes a long way. This is partly why the cover letter, in my view, already out and why more and more candidates are resorting to AI bulk auto-apply tools.
Auto-close roles after hitting an application threshold: With recruiters juggling more applications than ever, this keeps workloads manageable and ensures candidates still get a fair outcome.
Template everything you reasonably can: Comms, reminders, nudges, and status updates - they save hours. Just make sure interviews, post-interview feedback, and offer communications remain human. These are the moments candidates remember.
Rediscovery and smarter sourcing
Dive into your existing talent pool. With nearly half of hires coming from your CRM or ATS, rediscovery is low-cost and high-impact.
Engage previously sourced candidates proactively. They are often far more likely to convert than new applicants.
Think long-term. Nurture pipelines, keep communication flowing, and be ready to pull candidates forward when new roles open.
The Takeaway
Gem’s benchmarks and ONS data tell the same story: hiring is modestly recovering, but teams are lean, competition is high, and quality counts more than quantity. Companies that embrace smarter sourcing, process efficiency, automation, and rediscovery will win in 2025 going into 2026. Everyone else might end up chasing applications that go nowhere, while the best candidates sit quietly in talent pools.
Looking Ahead to 2026
As we step into 2026, one thing is clear: the fundamentals are not changing overnight. Lean teams, high application volumes, and the need for efficiency will continue to dominate. The winners will be the teams that invest in smarter sourcing, use AI and automation wisely, and nurture their existing talent pools. Companies that can balance speed with selectivity, and technology with a human touch, will not only survive but thrive. The key is simple - it is not about hiring more people faster, it is about hiring the right people smarter.
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