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Early Talent in Peril
More applicants, fewer roles, and the wrong signals. What the data reveals about entry-level hiring.
Entry-level hiring has contracted sharply, even as the number of candidates competing for those roles has doubled. Across the 10 most common entry-level job titles, open roles declined 35% in a single year. The average early talent job seeker now spends eight months searching and more than 500 hours applying before securing a role.
In this report from SAP SuccessFactors, researchers examine the forces behind that contraction — and the disconnect between how HR says it selects early talent and who actually gets hired. The research draws on a global survey of more than 1,700 early talent workers and job seekers, interviews with HR leaders, and proprietary data from Findem's analysis of more than 850 million professional profiles.
The findings make a clear case for why pulling back on early talent investment now carries real long-term risk and offer a practical framework for remaking the business case.
What you'll learn
- Why open roles for early talent fell 35% in a single year and what's driving the acceleration
- What the gap between what HR says it prioritizes and who actually gets hired reveals about early talent selection today
- Why early talent represents the most AI-native segment of the workforce and what organizations risk by pulling back now
