As corporations gradual hiring and job development stalls, many People really feel fortunate simply to have a job.
A brand new survey from ZipRecruiter Financial Analysis studies that many new hires are taking pay cuts and never negotiating compensation. Whereas a majority say they would depart their roles for larger pay, alternatives to take action appear scarce.
About half of latest hires (53%) — outlined as individuals who have began their jobs throughout the earlier six months — discovered their job inside one month. Over a fourth (27%) of latest hires took a pay reduce, typically after an prolonged interval of unemployment, and solely 56% elevated their pay, down from 61% from final quarter. Advantages suffered too, with solely 15% of latest hires receiving a signing bonus final quarter, the bottom fee of 2025.
Solely 30.4% of latest hires negotiated their affords. Those that did negotiate bought a greater deal, typically larger base pay, which can counsel that some job seekers are leaving cash on the desk.
“We’re seeing more decisions being made out of necessity,” stated ZipRecruiter Labor Economist Nicole Bachaud. “What we’re seeing is that with the challenges of this market, how difficult it is to secure even that first offer. There has been a kind of pullback from workers feeling that they have the power to negotiate.”
The long run unemployment fee is up over 15% from a yr in the past in November, in line with ZipRecruiter, and solely 50,000 jobs had been added to the economic system in December. Final yr, Amazon laid off 14,000 company workers, and Microsoft reduce 15,000 jobs. Verizon, UPS, and Goal additionally considerably decreased their workforces final yr.
Those that did negotiate bought a greater deal, typically larger base pay, which can counsel that some job seekers are leaving cash on the desk.
No ready for a dream job
Staff are on the lookout for steady employment and paychecks as long-term unemployment continues to rise, Bachaud stated, which makes them much less prone to watch for a dream job. In This fall, solely 25.2% reported touchdown their dream job, down from 36.2% within the earlier quarter.
Regardless of pay tradeoffs, the vast majority of new hires really feel safe of their jobs, and over half have stopped actively trying to find new positions after accepting a proposal. Greater than 1 / 4 intend to stick with their employers for 5 years or extra.
Nonetheless, 60% of respondents stated they would depart their present roles for a higher-paying job.
“That just speaks to what drove these new hires into these roles,” Bachaud stated. “Employers need to be really focused on what is going to make workers leave if the market does change, and make sure that they’re staying ahead of that so that there’s not a mass exodus, or that they’re able to take advantage of movement from other companies and workers leaving their other positions when that time does come.”
A hectic workload and poor administration are the 2 foremost drivers of latest workers regretting their profession strikes and in the end leaving their roles.
“Having a good work life balance and having good manager relationships are really, really important to workers right now, and businesses ought to be focusing on those pieces to make sure that their workers are happy and are planning to stay in place for the foreseeable future,” she stated.
