Public Insight’s March 2025 Jobs Report summarizes market insights from the millions of job postings, resumé updates and employer ratings/reviews available in our TalentView platform in addition to broader labor and macroeconomic indicators.
Summary
Dashboard – Comparisons of Key Metrics from March 2025 to February 2025 to March 2024
Job Posting Summary
- March 2025 job postings increased 9.3% compared to February 2025.
- Posting volume declined 18.5% from March 2024, which is consistent with the 18.6% annual decline we saw in February as well.
- Annual volume declines ranged across industry sectors with exception of Technology, Information, and Media, which increased from 2024. Wholesale, Accommodation Services, and Entertainment industries experienced the largest year-over-year declines at 25% or more.
- Sponsored ad rates declined to 12.4%, the lowest point since last summer.
- Quick Apply rates rebounded after a multi-month decline.
- Fill Days measured over the trailing twelve months increased from 47.8 days to 49.0 days. Further, the percentage of ads that are filled over the trailing twelve months declined from 84% to 83%. This continues a trend identified last month indicating an ever so slightly tightening labor market.
- Open Days has remained steady at 66.4 days measured using the trailing twelve months eliminating evergreen jobs. However, the number of ads open has increased to nearly 21% over that time period, a sizeable jump from 17% measured for December.
Posting Volume
Job postings in March declined 18.5% from the same period last year to 2.97 million. This is consistent with 18.6% decline in February from the prior year. Sequentially job postings increased 9.3% from February 2025 but were down 12.1% from January 2025.
Annual volume declines were across the board with one notable exception. Technology, Information, and Media increased from the prior year by 1.97%. However, 2024 was a low point for technology and the sector has since rebounded. Wholesale, Accommodation Services, and Entertainment Providers all experienced postings declines of more than 25%. Government Admin, Transportation and Hospitals and Health Care were down in the low 20%’s compared to a year ago.
Sponsored Ad, Quick Apply and Urgent Rates
Rates for sponsored ads declined to 12.4%, the lowest point since last summer. However, Quick Apply rates rebounded from a four month slide to get above 60%. Finally, urgent rates have remained near zero for many months now, although slightly up in March, indicating general market malaise.
Fill Days
Fill days use ad expiration and ad removal to determine a presumptive hire. When measured over a prolonged period of time and over thousands and millions of postings provides a strong glimpse of the overall market. The trailing twelve months is used as a time horizon for our analysis. We now eliminate stale or evergreen postings which are defined as those postings older than one year.
In the graph below, we show the fill days by month along with the percentage of ads (blue line) that have been filled. Obviously, the newer ads have a lower fill rate and because they are the earliest jobs filled, they typically have longer fill days.
The composite for fill days over the twelve months increased from 47.8 days to 49.0 days. Further, the percentage of ads that are filled over the trailing twelve months declined from 84% to 83%. We noted this last month as well and indicates a continuation of a tightening labor market.
Open Days
Open days are postings that are still determined to be open. We track every job posting uniquely and ascertain its fill status on a weekly basis. We eliminate implied evergreen ads that are older than one year.
The graph below shows the aging of open postings for the past 12 months. The current number of open postings reflected in the graph is 3.7 million. The composite aging of open postings is 66.4 days representing 17% of all postings during this period. The blue line shows the percentage of ads for that month that are still open.
Compensation Summary
- March compensation decreased 3.3%, reflecting primarily resets in a few industries.
- Compensation is up 9.4% over the trailing twelve months.
- The compensation range as a percentage of the midpoint compensation remains at a twelve-month high of 26.1%. This continues an ongoing trend from previous months.
- Several sectors reset with modest decreases following months of growth, notably Transportation and Technology.
Compensation Composite
Mid posted compensation decreased 3.3% in March to $66,100 on a composite basis across all job postings. This is the first significant decline since the beginning of 2024. However compensation has increased 9.4% over the trailing twelve months. The range of pay between max and min as a percentage of the midpoint remained steady at 26.1%. However this number is substantially higher than a year ago at 22.7%. This suggests that employers are giving themselves more negotiating room for advertised compensation.
Compensation by Industry Sector
- Transportation showed a significant decline of 9.5% in March after a seasonal runup late last year.
- Technology, Information, and Media likewise reset down 4.3% after a multi-month positive run. Administrative and Support Services also declined 5.7%.
- On a positive note, Professional Services increased 4.4% during the months of flat movement.
- Hospitals and Health Care, Manufacturing, and Government Administration held steady.
Supply and Demand Summary
- Resumes increased 7.0% in March to 3.76 million, but well below (15%) 2024’s year-end peak.
- While supply/demand as a whole remained relatively unchanged since last month, certain sectors have tilted increasingly towards unmet demand, notably Technology, Financial Services, Transportation, and most recently Professional Services.
Resumes
The number of unique resumes that were published on the Indeed platform increased 7.0% in March. March resumes were down 15% from the December peak. The number of resumes published during the past nine months is 33.9 million compared to the number of unique (net) positions of 26.0 million results in the tilt of our supply and demand by sector towards supply abundance.
Supply/Demand Chart
To highlight supply/demand imbalances, we superimpose job seekers based on resumés against net job positions (hires based on unique postings). We can then look at this supply and demand in diverse ways. The graphs highlight supply surplus (more job seekers than net postings) shown in green or supply shortage (less job seekers than net postings) shown in red. We picked a time horizon of nine months which highlights the current market surplus or shortage. The total bar reflects the summaries of openings and resumés for that time period.
Supply/Demand Scorecard
We highlight the current state at the end of March as well as the most recent changes over the last quarter. A change is not necessarily good or bad, but we have highlighted changes in supply/demand gaps that significantly impact the current trends.
The shift in workers has pivoted over the past year in the Technology and Financial Services sectors into unmet demand. In the month of March, Professional Services also joined into the group of unmet demand. On the other hand there appears to be an increasing supply of entry level jobs in Accommodation Services and Retail.
| Sector | Current State | Previous State |
| Hospitals and Health Care | Heavy Unmet Demand | Heavy Unmet Demand |
| Accommodation Services | Heavy Oversupply | Heavy Oversupply |
| Retail | Moderate Oversupply | Moderate Oversupply |
| Professional Services | Slight Unmet Demand | Parity |
| Manufacturing | Moderate Oversupply | Moderate Oversupply |
| Transportation, Logistics, … | Moderate Unmet Demand | Slight Unmet Demand |
| Construction | Parity | Parity |
| Technology, Information, … | Slight Unmet Demand | Slight Unmet Demand |
| Financial Services | Slight Unmet Demand | Slight Unmet Demand |
| Education | Slight Oversupply | Slight Oversupply |
| Consumer Services | Moderate Oversupply | Moderate Oversupply |
| Entertainment Providers | Moderate Oversupply | Moderate Oversupply |
| Wholesale | Parity | Slight Oversupply |
| Administrative and Support Services | Heavy Unmet Demand | Heavy Unmet Demand |
Worker Sentiment Summary
- Net Promoter Score remained flat at 15.9 but barely above fifteen-month lows.
- Positive business outlook continue declines to fifteen-month lows.
Net Promoter Score Stays at the Bottom
Net Promoter Score after bottoming out last fall has meandered barely above the low water mark of 2024. Net Promoter Score is measured based on the percentage of positive reviews over negative reviews. A score of 15.9 out of 100 means there are only marginally more “fans” than there are “detractors.”
In our analysis of reviews is the decline of worker sentiment around business outlook, which declined to a 15-month low as shown in the following graph.
Labor Market Summary
- Job Openings were down 2.5% in February to 7.6 million. Job openings are 7.0% above the September 2024 low point of 7.1 million jobs.
- Job Hires remained flat in February at 5.4 million and 5.9% above the June 2024 low point of 5.1 million jobs and 21% below the peak of 6.8 million in early 2022.
- Layoffs and Discharges recently ticked up to 1.8 million, but the rate has remained steady at 1.1%.
- Quit rates eased back after slowly climbing but still remain near four-year lows at 2.0% after spiking near 3% post pandemic.
- Unemployment rates continue to creep up in February to 4.5% but still in line with or slightly below historical standards.
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