A complete, clear, and comprehensive overview of the human resources statistics for the year 2021. Here, you will find all the information in one place, summarized just for you. Keep on reading if you want to see the trends and the figures for hiring, recruiting, and job searching in the second year of covid.

Are you looking for a new job and you want to know your chances? How many people managed to find a position in the last 12 months? Or are you a recruiter interested in knowing the summarized state of the market?

If yes, just scroll down. All the crucial information follows in a simple, structured way.

In this article, you will find:

• statistics about job interviews and resumes;
• overview of the key data about job search, unemployment, and diversification of the job market;
• data about recent graduates entering the work field;
• highlights of the most important trends which shape the HR field today;

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General HR statistics overview for 2021

• The average length of working hours per week in a private company is 34.6 (financesonline.com).
• The average number of yearly vacation days has dropped from over 20 in 2000 to less than 17 in 2019. However, only 76% of all US employees can take paid vacation days (financesonline.com).
• 45% of employees in America have sides jobs to earn extra money (Bankrate, 2019).
• The median length of stay with a current employer is just above 4 years (financesonline.com)
•  84% of workers who are happy with their job benefits are also happy with their jobs in general (financesonline.com).
• An average American woman changes her job around 12 times per life. For an average American man, this number is higher — 12.5 job position changes per life (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
• 70% of asked people claimed that one of the most important factors, which makes their job enjoyable, is having a friend as a colleague (netsuite.com).
• Only 30% of workers feel a sense of engagement toward their workplace. However, if employees are engaged, the profitability of the company is raised by more than 20% (netsuite.com).
• Only 49% percent of workers would recommend their employer to a friend (Zety.com).
• 40% of American workers claim that sustaining a healthy work-life balance is not possible (financesonline.com).

Job search statistics overview for 2021

• There are 250 applicants per job offer on average in a corporate company. Out of these, only up to 6 applicants get chosen for the first round of interviews. One leaves with a job (Glassdoor).
• Another survey states that 1 out of 6 applicants is called for an interview – which is around 16% (Jobvite 2017 Recruiting Funnel Benchmark Report). Yes, it is a battlefield out there.
• On average, one spends 24 weeks before successfully finding a job (US Bureau of Labor Statistics, November 2020).
• At the end of 2020, there were 6.7 million advertised job openings in America (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
• The key information for job seekers during the search is the height of salary (67%), followed by the offered benefits (63%) (Netsuite.com).
• In 33% percent of cases, workers search for a new job position because of boredom (Netsuite.com).
• In most cases (67%), what motivates people to accept a job offer is the salary. This is followed by offered benefits (63%) and by a convenient job location (59%) (Netsuite.com).

Resume statistics overview for 2021

• On average, the CV that you have worked so hard on is being looked at by a hiring manager for only 6 seconds (The Ladders).

That is why it is so important to have a resume that is structured, places the important information right at the beginning, and is also visually stimulating. Stand out from the crowd. Have a look here to see creative CV templates that will help you to catch your future employer´s eye.

• The average resume in 2021 consisted of 489 words (Zety.com).
• Overall, one must send out up to 50 resumes before being successful at getting hired (Zety.com).

While most people try to filter the information on their CVs, so it does not exceed one page, this is no longer required.

• As we move into 2022, 77% of companies would not pick an applicant with a resume that is only a page long (Zety.com).
• Furthermore, there is a 2.9x big chance to be selected if the resume is two pages long (Zety.com).

Interview statistics overview for 2021

• Hearing back from the interview. The most common length of time, which passes between a successful interview and an official job offer is 5 — 6 weeks. This is the case in 34% out of all instances, followed by 3 — 4 weeks of waiting time in 31% of all cases (Indeed.com).
•  If 9 weeks have passed without receiving an answer, the chances of getting a job drop to only a 3% success rate (Indeed.com). 
• 70% of candidates were rejected because their clothes were too fashionable (Netsuite.com). 
• Length of interview. While an average phone interview tends to last between 15 and 40 minutes, a standard in-person one ranges from 45 to 90 minutes (Indeed.com).
• Type of Interview. A survey done by LinkedIn has shown that 74% of companies use structured interviews, 57% of them use short phone screening interviews, and only 48% out of all interviews are phone interviews (Zety.com). 

Influence of corona virus on HR in 2021

• It comes as no surprise that one of the biggest changes that came with covid was the massive shift from working at the office to working remotely or from home (Forbes.com).
• In fact, employees who work remotely have a 5% higher chance of giving a high performance as opposed to those who stay in the office (gartner.com).
• Remote work also became much more common and is expected to remain common even after the pandemic is over (Forbes.com).
• Now, more companies focus on the safety, health, and well-being of their employees (pwc.com).
• However, only 20% of respondents are actually happier with working from home as opposed to working in the office (financesonline.com).

Unemployment & job loss statistics for 2021

• At the moment, in the United States, 6.7% of the population is without a job. This translates to almost 11 million unemployed people (US Bureau of Labor Statistics, November 2020).
• In comparison to 2020, unemployment has decreased by 0.3 in 2021, which is 483.000 in the number of people (Bureau of Labour Statistics, 2021).
• The group with the highest unemployment rates is millennials. Millennials are also the most overqualified and underemployed group (Gallup State of the American Workplace Report 2017).
• Each year, 27% of those employees who leave their jobs do so voluntarily (netsuite.com).
• Every year, 35% of workers leave their job because they found a new position elsewhere (netsuite.com).
• 25% of people who leave their job do so within the first year (Pulse, 2020).
• 68% of employees leave the job due to personal circumstances (financesonline.com).
• In 2020, 3.9 million people in the U.S. were reported unemployed for a period longer than 26 weeks (US Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2021).
• 80% of workers stated that a reason behind high levels of stress in a workplace was bad communication (financesonline.com).

Fresh graduates employment statistics for 2021

We all know that being a recent graduate looking for the first real full-time job is no fun. In 2021, the second year that was marked by COVID-19, this was even more true.

• An average time for finding a job after graduation is half a year (University of Washington).
• While 94% of fresh graduates believe that they will work in the field that is related to their respective degrees. However, only about 57% of them succeed to do so (Zety.com).
• This percentage goes down even lower – by 27% —  when we look at graduates who managed to find a job directly in their study field (Zety.com). 
• More than a half of graduates believe that they are underemployed (Gen Z Report Accenture).
• 78% of fresh graduates enter the job market with a completed internship/apprenticeship or another form of related job training experience (Gen Z Report Accenture).

This clearly shows that in 2022 internship is no longer an advantage but an absolute necessity. Having experience when looking for a job is simply crucial.

• Indeed, more than 90% of hiring employers want their future employees to have previous job experience. Moreover, 65% of them are asking specifically for relevant work experience. (NACE Job Outlook).

Diversity in HR overview for 2021 

• Gender. Women create less than half of the workforce in America, while men represent 53% of it. This number goes up to 70% if the job requires manual labor (Pew Research).
• On the other hand, only 19% of corporate board members are women (McKinsey).
• Moreover, the pay gap between genders is 20%, with men earning more (AAUW).
• Compared to cisgender people, transgender people are twice as likely to experience unemployment (thetaskforce.org).
• Furthermore, 44% of transgender employees are underemployed (thetaskforce.org).
• Companies, which have higher rates of gender diversity, tend to be more than 20% more successful in comparison to those companies, which have lower rates of diversity (netsuite.com).
• Ethnicity. Companies that employ more ethnically diverse employees are doing better than the less diverse companies — by 36% (netsuite.com).
• The group, which has the lowest employment rates out of all gender and ethnicity categories, is black men (brookings.edu).
• In America, black people have a 50% higher unemployment rate than white people. (americanprogress.org).
• Latino and black people hold only less than 6% of leadership positions in America (netsuite.com).

Overview of the online activities related to HR for 2021

• 79% of all research respondents use social media (such as LinkedIn or Instagram) when they are looking for a job. This percentage is even higher — 86% —  for young people (The Open University).
• LinkedIn is a favorite HR tool on the other side of the employment chain, too. Just under 90% of company recruiters are using LinkedIn when they are selecting and background checking new potential employees (Jobvite Recruiter Nation Report 2016).
• However, this number drops significantly for other social networks. Twitter is on average used in less than 23% of cases, and Facebook in less than 44% (Jobvite Recruiter Nation Report 2016).
• On average, when looking for a job, people scroll through 7.6 job search portals (Glassdoors).
• 60% of asked recruiters admitted to investigating job candidates online and on their social media profiles (Zety.com).
• Almost 66% percent of job recruiters negatively judge evidence of alcohol consumption on a candidate’s social media profile (Zety.com).

Freelance work statistics overview for 2021

• There has been significant growth in freelance work in the U.S over the past couple of years. While in 2014 there were 53 million registered freelancers, in 2019 it was already 57 million. In 2020, this number grew to 59 million freelancers (financesonline.com).
• On average, freelancers who do delivery earn the least – only around $17 per hour (AppJobs, 2020).
•  Contrastingly, freelancers who work as massage therapists earn the most out of all freelancers ($27.84 per hour) (AppJobs, 2020).

HR trends overview for 2021

• With the pandemic, the well-being of employees became the new focus of many companies (Forbes.com).
•  An improvement of support that the employer provides for their employees goes hand in hand with the success rates of the company. A 21% increase in high performance was noted in those organizations, which put the well-being of their employees first (Gartner.com).
• Simultaneously, in 2021, there was also a 20% increase in employees reporting their mental health struggles (Gartner.com).
• In the upcoming year, it is believed that remote work will remain popular and working hours will become more flexible (Gartner.com).

 Summary

• As we move into 2022, with the help of the COVID-19 pandemic, we can notice a few key positive tendencies that will influence the HR world in the upcoming months:
  • the growing focus on the mental and physical health of employees;
  • the growth in diversity of workers;
  • remote work and working from home have been established as a norm and despite the initial reservations, they have proven to lead to results, growth in productivity, and success;
  • the rates of unemployment in the United States went down in 2021 in comparison to 2020;
  • online job searching platforms and social media are becoming even more popular means of successfully finding a job;

• On the other hand, the HR field had its weaknesses in 2021:
  • people of color in America have still significantly higher rates of unemployment and underemployment;
  • together with other minorities and women, it is harder for them to work in leadership positions;
  • young people who are entering the job market struggle: it takes several months on average before being able to find a job and even then, recent graduates are often underemployed;