Hiring Is Accelerating, Workers Are Starting to Feel It, & Candidates Are Getting More Selective
As always, these figures are preliminary, carry a two-week lag, and are subject to revision. ADP produces the NER Pulse in collaboration with the Stanford Digital Economy Lab, and the next update releases April 28. But five consecutive weeks of improvement is a signal worth taking seriously. For employers, the companies that move decisively when momentum builds tend to win the candidates that slower-moving competitors lose. For job seekers, an improving trend like this one typically means more opportunities are opening, and that timing and responsiveness matter more than they did a month ago.
Worker Sentiment Just Ended a 7-Month Losing Streak
Alongside the hiring data, ADP Research’s April EMC Index dropped today with a finding that is more meaningful in context: after seven consecutive months of decline, worker motivation and commitment rebounded, with the overall index rising 3 points to 132. Eight of the ten sectors ADP tracks improved.
The biggest gain came from health care and social assistance, which jumped 16 points to 139, the largest single-month increase in the index’s history. As Dr. Mary Hayes of ADP Research noted, hiring strength and sentiment tend to move together. When an industry is actively growing, workers feel more secure and more valued. Healthcare has been one of the most consistently active hiring sectors all year, and that’s showing up directly in how health workers feel about their jobs.
The information sector also had a strong month, up 15 points to 142. Education gained 6 points. Not every sector recovered, though; manufacturing shed 8 points to 172, erasing its 2025 gains entirely, and retail and wholesale trade fell for the seventh straight month to its lowest reading since January 2024. The split matters. Falling sentiment tends to precede higher turnover and harder recruiting. If you’re hiring in manufacturing or retail right now, the data is worth paying attention to.
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60% of Candidates Won’t Apply Without a Salary Range – Here’s What Else Is Killing Your Pipeline
Monster’s Job Search Deal-Breakers Report adds important employer-facing context to today’s hiring momentum story. Candidates are active, but they’re making deliberate choices about where they invest their time, and the bar for engagement has risen.
The top-line finding: 60% of job seekers won’t apply to a role that doesn’t include a salary range. Not listing compensation is cutting your applicant pool before the process even begins. That’s a self-inflicted recruiting problem with a straightforward fix.
The list of deal-breakers extends well beyond pay. 59% say unpaid assignments or excessive take-home work make them least likely to apply. 57% would drop out after a poor interview experience. 56% avoid employers with negative reputations, and 51% skip roles with unclear job descriptions. 45% are put off by long or complex applications before they even submit. Once candidates are in the process, communication breakdowns do further damage: 53% say delays or lack of updates would cause them to exit, and 56% say unclear or shifting requirements push them out. More than three interview rounds (51%), never meeting the hiring manager (42%), and having to manually re-enter resume information (28%) round out the list of friction points that cost companies candidates.
We’ve covered the spray-and-pray dynamic from the candidate side – candidates applying broadly because the process feels opaque. Monster’s deal-breakers data is the employer-side mirror of that same problem. Friction kills pipelines. Every unnecessary step, every unclear job description, every week of silence after an interview is an attrition point. The employers who win the best talent in an accelerating market are the ones who treat their hiring process as part of their employer brand, because candidates do.
Frequently Asked Questions
According to ADP’s NER Pulse, private employers added an average of 54,750 jobs per week for the four weeks ending April 4, 2026, the strongest reading of the year and the fifth consecutive week of improvement. These figures are preliminary and subject to revision.
ADP Research’s EMC Index rose 3 points to 132, snapping seven straight months of decline. Eight of ten tracked sectors improved, led by health care (+16 points), which ADP Research links to strong hiring activity in that sector. As hiring strengthens, workers in growing industries tend to feel more secure and more committed to their employers.
According to Monster’s Job Search Deal-Breakers Report, 60% of job seekers say they won’t apply to a role that doesn’t list a salary range. While salary transparency laws vary by state, the data makes clear that omitting compensation is a significant candidate deterrent regardless of legal requirements.
Monster’s research identifies the top turnoffs as: no salary range listed (60%), unpaid take-home assignments (59%), a poor interview experience (57%), negative company reputation (56%), and unclear job descriptions (51%). Communication delays and more than three interview rounds are also common reasons candidates drop out mid-process.
