Recruiting Market Report - November 2024

Find out what we are hearing from candidates and clients and get our predictions for the future of the hiring market in the November 2024 edition of The ASP Team Market Report:

Quinn Finnigan - Recruiting Services Leader

Joss Stokke - Recruiting Services Leader

What are we hearing from candidates?
“I’m open to hearing about what is on the market." Candidates are in general open to hearing about what we’re recruiting for. It seems that people want to know what’s on the market. How serious they really are about making a move depends on what they are hearing. They definitely aren’t quick to make a change unless there is something compelling being presented to them. In the past, a greater number of people we approached would right away say, “I’m not looking to make a change currently" whereas now people are more curious and want to hear the high-level details of opportunities. Most everyone is on LinkedIn, which in and of itself somewhat implies being open to the market. More people being open to hearing about job opportunities has a lot to do with increased mergers and acquisitions activity over the years and protecting themselves from the potential fallout. After M&A activity, many candidates often state the culture of the company has changed or their position has been eliminated. Therefore, they are up for a job change. The key is that both the timing and opportunity have to be right for a candidate to seriously consider a job change.

What are we hearing from clients?
“We can’t find anyone suitable!” Clients continue to have a hard time finding accounting and finance talent. Many of them have spent months trying to find the right candidate. Unemployment is still low and it's even lower in accounting and finance, which is exacerbating the problem. Once clients reach out to us, they have already spent time, energy, and money. They are happy that we are able to find them much higher quality candidates than their internal efforts were yielding and in a more timely manner.  

What am I feeling about the hiring market?
Heading into 2025, the US economy is expanding at a solid pace. Economists are increasing their GDP growth predications despite the uncertainties of the incoming Trump policies such as tariffs. In November, unemployment ticked up slightly to 4.2% from 4.1%. Jobs added accelerated and beat economist expectations with 227,000 jobs added. Pay gains exceeded forecast as well. We are starting to experience a slight uptick in roles we are working this month and are having good conversations with companies about their upcoming needs in the New Year. All of this leads us to be cautiously optimistic about the hiring market. 

---

ASP Hiring Statistics - 2024
38 - Days to Place (avg.)
$156,596 - Avg. Placed Controller Salary
30% - Percent of Diversity Hires
96% - Percent of time we get interviews for our clients

---

Recent Placements
Tax Director - Services - Seattle 
VP of Operations -  Apparel - Bellevue
Director of Finance - Retail - Woodinville

View Our Current Openings

---

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

Episode 8 - Interview with Alex de Soto

---

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

View Our Top Candidates