Recruiting Market Report - November

Find out what we are hearing from candidates and clients and get our predictions for the future of the hiring market in the November 2025 edition of The ASP Team Market Report:

Quinn Finnigan - Recruiting Services Leader

Joss Stokke - Recruiting Services Leader

What are we hearing from candidates?
"Just give me a warm hug.” 
Candidates have gone from job hoppers as we recovered from Covid to job huggers. What is job hugging? It’s the act of staying in a job longer than usual for comfort, security, and stability. These workers are not necessarily closing the door on opportunity but rather aren’t seeing much of it as big salary bumps and the labor market have cooled. A recent Monster survey shows 75% of workers expect to remain in the same job for at least two more years (through December 2027) and nearly two-thirds expect the trend of job hugging to increase even more in 2026. They say higher pay and benefits, better work-life balance, and remote options would release them from job hugging. 

What are we hearing from clients?
"I want more for less." 
Clients are wanting candidates to have more skills for the same role. It seems the candidates’ market we have experienced for the past few years is slowing with lower hirings. Clients are putting more of an emphasis on candidates who possess strong soft skills like communication, critical thinking, emotional intelligence, and collaboration while also wanting them to have stronger technical, excel, and automation skills. Additionally, the Monster survey on job hugging indicates employers are valuing job huggers for their loyalty, institutional knowledge, and lower turnover costs.   

What am I feeling about the market?
"Trends are continuing for now." 
Currently, we are not seeing anything imminent that would disrupt 2025 trends and think they may continue into the beginning of 2026. These trends include job hugging, slower wage growth, less remote opportunities, and the upskilling of positions.  Now that the government shutdown is over, the Bureau of Labor Statistics plans to release their November jobs numbers on December 16th. ADP reported November numbers as a 32,000 decline in private employer jobs with small businesses leading the pullback. Additionally, they reported flat job creation in the second half of 2025 with pay growth being on a downward trend. 

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ASP Hiring Statistics
40 - Average days to place
$155,333 - Average placed Controller salary
44% - Percent of diversity hires
85% - Percent of time we get interviews for our clients

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Recent Placements
CFO - Healthcare - Vancouver, WA
Director of Finance - Nonprofit - Denver, CO
Controller - Retail - Seattle, WA​

View Our Current Openings

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Hiring Smarter with The ASP Team
Check out the latest episode of our accounting and finance recruiting podcast!

How to Find Candidates

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Top Candidates
Take a look at some examples of accounting and finance candidates we are working with currently.

View Our Top Candidates