TL; DR If your pipeline is growing, why aren’t your hires improving? Here’s the thing: With fewer qualified candidates and lower screen-to-interview rates, the challenge isn’t attracting more applicants—it’s attracting the right ones. So, what are the top teams doing differently? They’re moving beyond volume—getting precise about who they target, how they segment, and how they use data to continuously improve results.
Here are the facts:
The number of applicants per role soared to just over 257 in 2025. At the same time, the average qualified applicant rate fell from 11.6% to 11.5%. And screen to interview rates dropped from 38.9% to 34.9%.
In other words, more volume isn’t translating to better hiring. It’s simply creating more noise, more screening, and more
