It’s hard to believe we’re already diving into 2025 and preparing for yet another year that will be full of growth, challenges, and change. As we do every year, before fully embracing the year ahead, we’re looking back to recap 2024 and the milestones that came and went with it.
The hiring landscape in 2024
2024 marked a shift in the U.S. job market after many years of tight competition for employers. The unemployment rate stayed low, ending the year around 4.2%. However, the demand for labor has decreased, along with employee satisfaction.
One interesting trend is that many workers are looking for new jobs and seeking new opportunities at the highest rate in the last 5 years. But many are not having much luck gaining traction.
This lines up with CareerPlug original research as well. In previous years, we’ve reported that the majority of job seekers (~50%) have turned down a job offer due to a poor candidate experience during the hiring process – but data from this year’s upcoming report tells a different story. In 2024, only 26% said they have declined a job offer due to a poor candidate experience.
Employers looking to hire had more options this year, which will likely continue into 2025. In the past year, Careerplug clients used our software to manage the influx of qualified applicants and make the right hires for their teams. Let’s take a closer look at our impact on thousands of small business owners.
How we helped our clients
CareerPlug is proud to have partnered with new brands and helped nearly 77,831 teams grow this year, including the 10,864 new clients that came on board. Our team of hiring experts ensure that all of these clients feel supported and served our clients through 31,520 interactions this year!
We helped our clients streamline their hiring operations, so they could hire the best candidates more quickly than the competition. Our applicant tracking system helped employers in various industries post their open jobs, Fast-track their best applicants, schedule thousands of interviews, and of course – make the right hires, rounding out the year with 215,511 new hires marked in the software.
Sharing our expertise
As part of CareerPlug’s mission to make hiring easier, we share our hiring expertise year round. This includes conducting original research, writing articles to educate our audience of small business employers, and hosting live webinars to help educate business owners and shed light on hiring trends.
This year’s original research included two annual reports: The Candidate Experience Report and our Recruiting Metrics Report. We also attended 77 conferences where we were able to connect with both current clients and new business owners alike, to share our best practices and spread the word about our software.
Another proud moment this year was publishing our e-book, How to Become a Top Employer in Franchising. This resource is the ultimate playbook for franchisors to help them create a great culture, attract talent, and build a winning team.
Download Your Copy of the E-book
Become a top employer in franchising with these expert hiring and retention strategies!
GET MY E-BOOKKeep growing: CareerPlug team highlights
We added 25 new pluggies to our fully remote team, which is spread across 30 states! One way we all stay in touch during the workday is with Slack’s messaging platform. In 2024, we communicated by sending over 103,271 public channel messages and 537,011 direct messages.
We also made sure to recognize teammates that exemplified our core values via Assembly’s Employee Recognition software. There were 887 public shout-outs given by team members this year.
Giving back
Giving back is a big part of CareerPlug’s mission. This year, our employees donated nearly $38,000 to their favorite charities. CareerPlug matched donations throughout the year, and double matched in the last quarter of 2024.
We gave back in other ways throughout the year as well. And as we do every Christmas, we sponsored and bought gifts for 15 teens in foster care through Foster Angels of Central Texas. And through our partnership with WeForest, we planted 5,251 trees.
Looking ahead to 2025
We’ve got a big year ahead at CareerPlug as we continue to transform the way we work with our clients and help them grow their businesses. We will continue to help teams hire and retain the right people through easy-to-use software and the consultative support of our expert team.
