It Now Takes Longer to Hire an Electrician Than a Software Developer
The vacancy data behind that hiring gap is striking. Robotics technician openings are up 113% over the four-year period. HVAC engineer demand is up nearly 78%. Industrial automation roles are up 51%. Even general trades (electricians, welders, construction specialists) are up 30% on average, significantly outpacing the broader job market. The force behind most of this is AI infrastructure. Data centers need to be built. Power grids need to be upgraded and maintained. As Randstad’s Chief Commercial Officer, Greg Dyer, put it plainly: AI can’t build data centers, upgrade power grids, or maintain its own infrastructure. We need skilled workers to build the things that will eventually replace other workers. That’s not a small irony.
Job Seeker Confidence Just Hit Its Highest Level Since 2022 – Read Past the Headline
The ZipRecruiter Q1 2026 Job Seeker Confidence Index came in at 99.8, the highest reading since 2022 and a 2.9-point jump from Q4. Based on a survey of more than 1,500 job seekers conducted in February, the index reflects a genuine shift in sentiment, and it’s worth acknowledging before diving into the caveats.
The expectations data is the most encouraging piece. Nearly 73.5% of job seekers now expect the same number of jobs or more over the next six months, up sharply from 60.5% in Q4, which was a historic low. More than half (54.3%) received at least one job offer during their search, up from 48.6% last quarter. Those are real improvements, and after the tone set by the Gallup and Challenger data we’ve covered recently, they’re worth taking seriously.
But the picture gets more complicated once you look beneath the surface. Nearly 39.5% of job seekers say the lack of relevant opportunities is their biggest challenge. And 14.3% now report no confidence at all in finding a job that matches their skills, up sharply from 8.8% in Q4. That’s nearly a 6-point jump in one quarter, which is not a rounding error. ZipRecruiter labor economist Nicole Bachaud described job seekers as “cautiously optimistic that conditions will continue to improve, even as many feel the current market lacks relevant opportunities.” That framing captures it well. Confidence is up. The actual jobs people want are still hard to find. And nearly two-thirds of job seekers say they feel financial pressure to accept the first offer they receive, regardless of fit. Optimism and desperation can coexist, and right now they are.
Jobless Claims Hold Steady, But “Not Getting Worse” Isn’t a Recovery
The Department of Labor reported 210,000 initial jobless claims for the week ending March 21, up 5,000 from the prior week’s 205,000. The four-week moving average actually edged down slightly to 210,500, which is the more reliable signal. Continuing claims fell to 1,819,000, down 32,000 from the prior week and the lowest level since May 2024.
Taken together, these numbers say the same thing they’ve been saying for months: the floor is holding. People who lose jobs are finding new ones at a reasonable pace. Large-scale layoffs are not, at this point, flowing through in the weekly data despite the steady drumbeat of household-name announcements. That’s genuinely good news, and it’s worth saying directly. What it isn’t, though, is evidence of a strong or recovering market. As we’ve noted consistently since the February BLS report, low layoffs and solid hiring are two different things. Companies are still holding tight on headcount. That pattern continues.
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Nearly 1 in 3 Retirees Is Working or Open to It – Inflation Is the Primary Reason
A new survey from Indeed Flex, conducted in February 2026 across 500 U.S. retirees, finds that 30% are either currently working or open to flexible, part-time jobs. That’s not a small number when applied to the scale of the retired population. And 74% say their view of retirement has changed in the past five years, with nearly a third reporting significant change.
The financial reality driving this is direct: 63% cite increased cost of living as the primary reason for returning to work, and 32% say their savings simply aren’t enough. Among American retirees specifically, 67% point to the cost of living, higher than the 54% of U.K. retirees surveyed. The gender gap mirrors what’s showing up in other workforce data: women cite cost of living at a rate of 69% versus 53% of men, reflecting the persistent savings disparity that tends to follow women through their working years into retirement.
What’s notable is that the motivation isn’t purely financial. More than half of retirees say they miss social interaction. Another 39% miss feeling productive. Indeed Flex CEO Novo Constare noted that retirees aren’t looking to return to traditional full-time roles; they’re seeking flexible opportunities that provide supplemental income, social connection, and a sense of purpose. Most want fewer than 20 hours a week. Their top sectors of interest are retail, freelance consulting, hospitality, and delivery roles. For employers struggling to fill part-time, seasonal, or hourly positions, this is a talent pool worth taking seriously. The experience and reliability these workers bring (combined with their scheduling flexibility) can be a genuine advantage. Rethinking what a great hire looks like often starts with expanding who you’re willing to consider.
Frequently Asked Questions
Demand has grown dramatically; robotics technicians, HVAC engineers, and industrial automation roles have all seen vacancy surges of 50% to 113% since 2022. At the same time, the pipeline is shrinking: for every 100 young workers entering manufacturing, 102 are leaving. That combination of surging demand and declining supply is showing up directly in time-to-fill data.
Sentiment has improved, but the market itself hasn’t changed as dramatically as the index suggests. More job seekers are getting offers, and expectations about future job availability have risen. But nearly 40% still say the lack of relevant opportunities is their top challenge, and the financial pressure to accept whatever comes first remains real for most.
Not in a material way. Claims remain historically low, and continuing claims just hit their lowest level since May 2024. The major layoff announcements from well-known companies don’t appear to be triggering a broad surge in filings, at least not yet.
The data makes a compelling case for it. Roughly 1 in 3 retirees is working or open to flexible work, and most want fewer than 20 hours a week, making them well-suited for part-time, seasonal, or hourly positions. They bring reliability and experience, and their primary motivation is supplemental income plus connection, not career advancement. That alignment of expectations can produce strong retention in roles that typically see high turnover.
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Randstad’s labor flip: Why skilled trades now take longer to hire than software developers
Welcome back to Cornering the Job Market. Today’s workforce news and headlines include new job seeker confidence data showing the most optimistic reading we’ve seen in years. We’ll talk about what that actually means for people looking for work right now. Also, there’s a new survey revealing why a growing number of retirees are heading back into the workforce. We’ll get into that. And I’ll also share the latest unemployment claims that were released this morning from the Department of Labor.
But first, it now takes longer to hire an electrician than a software developer. That’s according to a new Randstat analysis of more than 150 million job postings between 2022 and 2026. The average time to hire for skilled trades workers has hit 56 days, while for desk based professionals, it’s 54. The demand numbers tell why when you dig into those. Robotics technicians’ vacancies are up 113% over that period, HVAC engineer demand is up nearly 78%, and industrial automation roles are up 51%. And then there’s general trades, which are electricians, welders, construction specialists, those are all up 30% on average, which is significantly outpacing the broader job market. What’s driving this is AI infrastructure construction.
Or as Randstad’s chief economist officer put it, somewhat ironically, I think, AI can’t build data centers, upgrade power grids, or maintain its own infrastructure. So think about that. We can’t use AI to build the data centers that will allow AI to replace people. So we need people to build the things that will replace people. Okay, let’s just focus on good news while we have it. But really, this isn’t all good news because the math in the space just isn’t favorable. It hasn’t been for a while and it’s getting worse. In manufacturing, which leads a lot of these skilled trades roles, there’s only a hundred young workers entering the workforce in that sector for every 102 who were leaving, and that’s an annual decline of almost 2% of that pipeline. So we have demand growing three times faster than professional roles, time to hire is already longer than office jobs, and now there’s a shrinking pipeline of younger workers coming in. So interesting times ahead in that space for sure.
ZipRecruiter Q1 2026: A 4-year confidence high with a big caveat underneath
The next story shows us that JobSeeker Confidence is heading in the right direction. If you’re surprised to hear that, you’re not alone. I was when I read this survey. It’s ZipRecruiter’s Q1 2026 JobSeeker Confidence Index. It was released this morning. It came in at 99.8, which is the highest rating since 2022, and it’s up 2.9 points from Q4. That’s based on a survey of more than 1,500 job seekers. It was conducted in February. This is an index that comes out every quarter. I look forward to seeing how it changes.
And I was not expecting it to go in a positive direction, but we’ll take it. On expectations, 73.5% now expect the same number or more jobs over the next six months, and that’s up from 60.5 in Q4, which was a historic low. That’s a meaningful bounce back. And almost 55% received at least one job offer, which was up from only 48.5% in Q4. So positive numbers there. We’re seeing more people get offers. That’s a good thing. So the headline numbers are encouraging, but it’s not quite as positive once you dig beneath the surface. 39.5% of job seekers say the lack of relevant opportunities is their biggest challenge. And 14.3% report no confidence at all in finding a job that matches their skills. Now that’s not a high percentage, but what’s alarming is that’s up from only 8.8% last quarter.
So that is something that’s certainly heading in the wrong direction. So the jobs are there, but they’re just not the right jobs. ZipRecruiter’s labor economists said job seekers are cautiously optimistic that conditions for the job search will continue to improve, even as many feel the current market lacks relevant opportunities. Optimism is a bit of a stretch since the survey also showed that nearly 70% of job seekers felt compelled to accept their first offer because they were worried about whether there will be a next one. All the good news seems to come with a caveat lately, doesn’t it? I I don’t want that. I don’t mean for that to happen, but I have to report what’s there and not just look at the headlines. The headlines always catch your attention, but when you dig a little bit beneath, it’s just lately it’s just not as positive.
Weekly jobless claims: 210,000 for March 21; stable, but not a recovery
So let’s see if that continues with the unemployment data that was released this morning. Weekly claims continue to hold at historically low levels. The Department of Labor reported 210,000 initial jobless claims for the weekending March 21st. Now that is up from 5,000 a prior week, but the four-week moving average actually moved down slightly. So that’s a good thing. Also, uninsured employment fell to 1,819,000, which is down 32,000 from the previous week, and it’s the lowest level since May 2024. The bottom line here is that although we’ve seen a lot of household names announcing layoffs, they don’t seem to be impacting the market overall. They remain relatively contained. And this data shows us that the people who are losing jobs are finding new ones relatively quickly.
I say relatively because that needs to be applied here. Uh because there’s nothing to suggest that the labor market is declining, at least not significantly, and that’s good, although we need it to improve. Make no mistake, this is not overall good news, but it’s not bad either. And considering all of the external factors that are happening right now, that’s almost a win because things could be trending significantly worse, and it wouldn’t have surprised me if they did. So that’s where we are with unemployment for this week. We’re about to enter the new month, and we’ll see some new monthly numbers come out. And I always look forward to reporting on those. So stay tuned. Um, in the next two weeks, we’ll have some interesting data to share for sure.
Indeed Flex Survey: Why 1 in 3 retirees is returning to work, and what employers should do about it
But finally, for today, nearly one in three retirees are working or open to flexible jobs, and inflation is the reason that most of them are coming back, which uh is disappointing to see. That is unfortunate to see. But I don’t know about you, but I’m not surprised to see that inflation, despite what we see, is certainly impacting. Well, it seems like it’s impacting everything I do, everywhere I go lately. But all this is according to a new Indeed Flex survey of retirees that found 63% cite increased cost of living as the primary driver for returning to work. 32% say their savings aren’t enough. 74% say their view of retirement has changed in the past five years.
And they’re not looking for full-time roles. The majority want fewer than 20 hours a week. That’s good at least, or somewhat better than then going to work full-time. They’re primarily uh primarily looking for retail, freelance consulting, hospitality, and delivery driver positions. So it’s unfortunate that they have to do that at all. But it’s not purely financial, according to Indeed Flex’s CEO, who said many retirees are not looking to return to traditional full-time roles. They are seeking flexible opportunities that provide supplemental income, social connection, and a renewed sense of purpose. So that social connection and sense of purpose, that makes sense. I get it.
A lot of people retire and they don’t have a whole lot to do, and this gives them a purpose and something to spend time on and making human connections. I mean, all that makes sense to me. And I wish that were the only reason, but we know that the financial strain is there too. Also, this survey showed us that there’s a gender gap going on, and I see that reported in all of our data lately. Our own internal survey showed that from Q1. We’ll be reporting on that when uh Q2 was released. We’re going to be running that survey next week, actually. But it showed that savings for women were considerably less than they are for men, and that’s showing up in this data too. Although our survey was working professionals, the retirees are experiencing the same thing.
No surprise that this has been going on uh for many years. But in the survey, the women cite cost of living at a higher rate, 69% compared to 53% of men, with the reason they’re uh the reason they’re going back to work. So here’s the thing. If you’re an employer struggling to fill part-time, hourly, or seasonal roles, look at these people. Please consider them. How fun would that be to have retirees around with mixed with your younger crowd? Everybody would love that, right? All these generations working together, five generations working together at once. That’s a good thing. We should promote that. Um, I know I’d like some more seasoned folks around uh my team and share their knowledge and experience. But that’s what’s showing uh in the headlines today. Thank you for listening.
Fun fact: The Zeigarnik Effect, why your brain won’t let you forget unfinished tasks
Here is your fun fact before we go. I am gonna try to not mess this up. But there is something called the Zygernik effect. I think that’s how it’s pronounced. Don’t shoot me if it’s not. But the Zygernik effect is why you can’t stop thinking about unfinished tasks. Your brain apparently remembers them better than the finished ones. Well, that’s because you still have things to do, right? That shouldn’t be such a weird thing to think about. And that’s not even a fun fact. That just bothers me and makes me think of all the things that I still need to finish. So I’m gonna say goodbye and go do those now. Thank you for listening. Please like and subscribe. I would appreciate that. Share with anyone you think might be interested. They would appreciate that. So that’s it for today. Talk to you tomorrow.
