Spotlight for Recruiting Professionals

While, for the most part, benchmarks associated with the hiring process have remained steady, there has been a continued decline in acceptance rate, according to results of NACE’s 2017 Recruiting Benchmarks Survey.

Overall, 45.6 percent of college graduates who interviewed for a position received a job offer; however, employers reported an acceptance rate of 68.2 percent, down from last year’s average of 71.8 percent. The decrease in acceptance rate from last year’s report is indicative of an improving hiring market. This is the second consecutive year that an improving hiring market has been evident. (See Figure 1.)

Meanwhile, time frames associated with each part of the hiring process were similar to those of past years. On average, the number of days from when a position was posted to the beginning of interviews for the position was 37.5. (See Figure 2.) The time span from interview to notification of an offer was slightly less at 23.6 days. For candidates who received a job offer, employers allotted an average of 14 days for acceptance.

Data collection for NACE’s 2017 Recruiting Benchmarks Survey Report took place from July 19, 2017, to August 1, 2017; 301 firms participated. An executive summary is available on the NACE website. The full report is available to those at participating organizations through MyNACE > Research Reports.