Indeed - The Future of Better Works

THE FUTURE OF

Better Work

3 defining trends that will shape 2025

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Generative AI is already transforming job-seeking and recruitment, but its full impact on US working life has yet to be realized.

The sections below will dig deep into these upcoming shifts and act as a guidebook for managers navigating the changes, offering key tips for differentiating and continuing to recruit the best talent.

Read on to learn more about three key predictions for the year ahead.

The saying goes that the only constant is change.

The job market landscape and ever-evolving hiring practices are no exception.

Prediction 1:

New approaches to hiring will help navigate economic uncertainty

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The case for skills-first hiring with AI

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While GenAI is poised to have a significant impact across jobs and industries, fewer than half of business leaders feel that their companies are doing enough to empower employees to use it. Some workers remain resistant to using technology they fear could one day fully replace their roles.

Programs that teach employees how to use GenAI to make themselves more productive and free up time to focus on more engaging tasks will be key to tackling AI anxiety.

AI is not only transforming existing roles, but creating new professions, too. In May 2024, the share of job ads on Indeed.com containing terms related to GenAI had grown by nearly eightfold since the same month in 2023.

It’s a small percentage — equivalent to just over one in every thousand roles — but it's a percentage that is growing fast.

Despite fears of an economic slowdown,
the US economy continues to outpace
most major countries, with solid consumer spending and wages growing faster than inflation.¹²³⁴

Meanwhile, job postings have been trending downward since early 2022, but unemployment and layoffs remain low, according to Indeed’s 2025 US Jobs & Hiring Trends Report.

Still, an aging population and expected decline in immigration mean the US workforce may shrink this year.

All this makes predicting the precise trajectory of the job market difficult, but there are some key ways employers can stand out to potential hires.

Flip through and click on the flashcards below to learn more about each of the approaches.

74%

70 million+

Nine out of 10

of hiring managers say they would prefer to be matched with talent based on skills rather than searching for them³

people, accounting for roughly half the US workforce, are screened out when four-year degree requirements are included on a job posting⁴

HR leaders already use AI in their work.⁵

This subtle shift in prioritizing skills over academic accomplishments could spell out a massive transformation in the way recruitment works. By placing substance over superficiality at the heart of its AI products, Indeed helps hiring managers focus on finding candidates who are the best fit for the job.

None of us [know] with any certainty what the future holds, but if we all start incrementally building today toward a better tomorrow, we’re moving in the right direction. When we work together, we have a greater chance of ensuring that job seekers facing bias and barriers aren’t left behind.

LaFawn Davis

Chief People & Sustainability Officer at Indeed

Job seekers should also think deeply about how they use AI, as companies are finding clever ways to screen out applicants who use tools like ChatGPT to submit applications without any human review. The key lesson here? AI tools should assist job seekers, enhancing their efforts rather than replacing them completely.

Embracing pay transparency

Tapping into
“skills-first” hiring

Paying healthy
wages

When used with care, AI can be a powerful tool for connecting hiring managers with exceptional applicants. That’s particularly true on Indeed, where insights are provided from job seekers on work preferences and qualifications.

When you post a job on Indeed, our AI recommends candidates that match your requirements. You can choose the candidates that are the best fit and invite them to apply with a single click. We are combining the power of AI with the incredible power of human judgment. The power of you. It’s smart, it’s fast, and it’s incredibly effective.”

Chris Hyams

Indeed CEO

While some industry observers have focused on how AI may replace job roles, Indeed is already demonstrating how the technology can be used to help candidates showcase the depth of their professional talents.

Hiring practices in some HR departments have become more rigid with time-pressed recruiters looking for candidates to check certain boxes — paying close attention to external certifications like degrees. But this outdated approach may often disadvantage specific communities, especially Black, Hispanic, and rural Americans.

Using AI and machine-learning, Indeed's Smart Sourcing helps employers match with candidates based on skills developed over the course of their careers and training courses they’ve taken while on the job, which are included in their profile. One study from Harvard Business School demonstrated that when degree requirements are dropped from job descriptions, the employees hired without a formal degree typically stay with companies longer than their college-educated peers.

Use the data below to explore this meteoric rise, as well as the types of roles requiring the highest levels of AI proficiency.

Select a role from the list below to see how AI could transform the working day for professionals in that sector.

Share of job postings with AI proficiency required, by occupation

Generative AI roles take off in the US

AI Competency* at Performing Relevant
Job Skills Requested by US Employers

Percentage of job postings on Indeed containing GenAI terms over a 7-day moving average

Data correct as of May 31, 2024

Potential jobs include

AI Training -
Mathematician

AI Mathematical Modeller

37.1%

Potential jobs include

AI Programmer

AI/ML Engineer

Mathematics

Potential jobs include

Technical Writer AI Content

Graphic Designer AI Content

0.1262

Generative AI

Potential jobs include

AI Research Scientist

Data Scientist - AI Methods

23.6%

Software Development

ChatGPT
Launches

16.7%

Information Design & Documentation

Types of Roles

Potential jobs include

AI Industrial Engineer

AI Process Engineer

Job category

Childcare

Beauty and Wellness

Scientific Research and Development

Nursing

Loading and Stocking

Hospitality and Tourism

Community and Social Service

Administrative

Accounting

Architecture

Arts and Entertainment

Banking and Finance

Beauty and Wellness

Childcare

Civil Engineering

Cleaning and Sanitation

Construction

Customer Service

Dental

Driving

Education and Instruction

Electrical Engineering

Food Preparation and Service

Human Resources

Industrial Engineering

Information Design and Documentation

Installation and Maintenance

Insurance

IT Operations and Helpdesk

Legal

Logistic Support

Management

Marketing

Mathematics

Media and Communications

Medical Information

Medical Technician

Personal Care and Home Health

Pharmacy

Physicians and Surgeons

Production and Manufacturing

Project Management

Retail

Sales

Security and Public Safety

Software Development

Sports

Therapy

Veterinary

Loading and Stocking

Banking and Finance

Arts and Entertainment

Project Management

Architecture

Legal

Administrative

Accounting

Sports

Media and Communications

IT Operations and Helpdesk

Therapy

Mathematics

Insurance

Personal Care and Home Health

Installation and Maintenance

Production and Manufacturing

Information Design and Documentation

Marketing

Industrial Engineering

Construction

Sales

Community and Social Service

Cleaning and Sanitation

Nursing

Human Resources

Civil Engineering

Management

Scientific Research and Development

Hospitality and Tourism

Software Development

Food Preparation and Service

Logistic Support

Electrical Engineering

Medical Technician

Physicians and Surgeons

Education and Instruction

Security and Public Safety

Driving

Medical Information

Retail

Dental

Pharmacy

Customer Service

Veterinary

0.0895

10.4%

Scientific Research & Development

Potential jobs include

IT Support - AI Products

Database Administrator

Potential jobs include

Marketing Manager: Data & AI

AI Content Marketing Expert

9.4%

0.0654

Industrial Engineering

Potential jobs include

Research Engineer: Chip Design

AI Hardware Engineer

7.7%

IT Operations & Helpdesk

Potential jobs include

Applied AI ML Director - Bank

AI Deployment Strategist

7.2%

3.7%

Marketing

Potential jobs include

AI Content Editor

AI Proofreader

1.6%

2.4%

3.1%

3.0%

2.8%

3.3%

Fair

Poor

Fair

Poor

Fair

Poor

Fair

Poor

Fair

Poor

Fair

Poor

Fair

Poor

Fair

Poor

Fair

Poor

Fair

Poor

Fair

Poor

Fair

Poor

Fair

Poor

Fair

Poor

Fair

Poor

Fair

Poor

Good

Fair

Good

Fair

Good

Fair

Good

Fair

Good

Fair

Good

Fair

Good

Fair

Good

Fair

Good

Fair

Good

Fair

Good

Fair

Good

Excellent

Poor

0.0272

5.1%

Electrical Engineering

3.4%

2.7%

3.2%

4.2%

4.8%

6.5%

7.4%

8.2%

8.9%

9.1%

10.2%

4.8%

3.9%

4.9%

13.6%

13.2%

14.4%

16.4%

10.7%

7.0%

17.1%

12.6%

10.6%

24.3%

24.5%

25.0%

7.9%

25.4%

10.1%

27.2%

9.3%

9.1%

14.0%

29.9%

10.1%

18.7%

18.0%

33.8%

33.4%

23.9%

34.8%

35.8%

37.1%

40.1%

25.8%

41.5%

42.3%

15.6%

14.9%

48.0%

19.8%

51.7%

17.6%

6.0%

55.2%

54.7%

29.2%

55.8%

56.7%

5.8%

57.7%

9.3%

14.5%

10.2%

67.1%

52.0%

3.2%

11.6%

8.0%

12.5%

14.9%

6.2%

12.8%

56.8%

7.5%

10.5%

60.8%

64.1%

12.5%

8.1%

5.3%

64.3%

5.2%

3.9%

4.2%

11.7%

4.2%

20.9%

39.3%

27.7%

25.6%

24.8%

24.1%

23.2%

22.5%

22.8%

20.9%

20.6%

20.1%

19.9%

19.1%

19.3%

19.6%

19.0%

18.6%

18.5%

18.1%

17.2%

17.6%

17.3%

16.5%

15.6%

15.8%

15.5%

14.3%

13.9%

14.0%

14.2%

13.3%

13.2%

12.6%

12.5%

12.9%

12.2%

11.5%

10.6%

10.3%

10.0%

7.3%

5.9%

3.8%

5.0%

6.9%

Fair

7.7%

10.4%

Fair

69.4%

66.2%

70.9%

82.1%

81.4%

88.0%

91.9%

68.5%

66.0%

67.6%

45.6%

46.4%

66.7%

47.7%

60.3%

74.4%

37.4%

44.7%

46.7%

53.0%

39.8%

47.2%

60.6%

42.1%

38.5%

40.6%

38.2%

22.4%

32.5%

36.1%

34.7%

37.8%

20.9%

20.5%

27.0%

25.1%

26.9%

26.4%

14.8%

Excellent

Poor

0.0092

0.0016

0.0050

0.0024

0.0040

5.0%

Banking & Finance

4.8%

Media & Communications

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100

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10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

*How to read the chart: Economists at Indeed extracted the most common skills listed on job listings for positions in the selected job category. ChatGPT was then asked whether it could perform those tasks to a “Poor,” “Fair,” “Good,” or “Excellent,” standard.

Source: The Indeed Global AI Survey: your guide to the future of hiring, Dec 2023

Source: Indeed

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Prediction 2:

Work wellbeing will be a key
bottom-line strategy

Since 2019, Indeed has been asking employees at thousands of firms how they feel at work — specifically, how highly they rate their happiness, job satisfaction, stress, and sense of purpose in their day-to-day.

Indeed combines those four indicators to create a Work Wellbeing Score, rated out of five, which jobseekers can find on many Indeed company profile pages. This massive dataset has become the world’s largest study of work wellbeing.

Now, a groundbreaking collaboration between Indeed and the University of Oxford has produced The Work Wellbeing 100 — an index of the top 100 publicly traded companies ranked by their Work Wellbeing score.

Some of the research results may surprise readers. See if you can answer the questions below and discover why work wellbeing is so important.

100 public companies with the highest work wellbeing scores have outperformed the S&P500 by 11% since 2021.⁹

True

High-wellbeing workplaces outperformed the S&P500 over the last four years.

True

False

High-wellbeing workplaces outperformed the S&P 500 over the last four years.

True

False

When work wellbeing scores are available to candidates, application rates are significantly higher for employers with high scores.¹⁰

True

Workplaces with higher wellbeing scores tend to attract more candidates.

True

False

Work wellbeing is shown to be a strong predictor of employee performance regardless of the benefits to workplace harmony, particularly in tasks requiring social or emotional intelligence.¹¹

False

Happy workers tend to get along better with other employees, which slightly lowers performance on specific tasks but increases morale overall.

False

True

It’s clear that high levels of work wellbeing benefit
companies just as much as they benefit workers.

The smartest organizations will make it a priority in 2025.

Prediction 3:

AI will have a big impact, but it will vary by industry

The rapid advancement of AI tools offers promising solutions to long-term labor supply challenges, with strong evidence showing their potential to boost individual worker productivity.

For example, Indeed’s Smart Sourcing adds the efficiency of AI to hiring talent sourcing. Rather than manually filtering through talent, Smart Sourcing’s algorithms help connect active candidates to recruiters’ open roles. They can also reach out to prospective hires with personalized messages, designed to increase the likelihood of a response.

Research shows that this technology can save hiring managers six hours per week.¹² Adding the AI-driven list of potential talent provided by matched candidates means a hire is 19x more likely.¹³

Where are we now with AI?

When Indeed develops AI tools like Smart Sourcing, it focuses on making more time for decisions that benefit most from human expertise.

In the development pipeline is an
AI-powered talent scout that helps recruiters find job seekers that match the company’s long-term business priorities and align with their values.

This AI-powered talent scout that we’re envisioning is not some robot to replace humans.
It is all of you.

Think of this as a superhero suit that Indeed will build to put all the power of our data and AI at your fingertips; that empowers you to identify talent, to combat bias, to see the future of work. That’s what we believe the power of humanity and AI together can bring.

Chris Hyams
Indeed CEO

As of October 2024, just two in 1,000 jobs nationwide mentioned GenAI terms in the job posting — although the share is growing fast.¹⁴

Most of these job ads were concentrated in sectors with a reputation for quickly adopting new technologies like software development and mathematics.¹⁵ Many sectors could benefit through Indeed, as recruiters do, but barriers such as training costs and lack of knowledge stand in the way.¹⁶

One of these is the fear of AI replacing human workers — but these worries are likely misplaced. Indeed evaluated 2,800 skills used at work and found not a single one was very likely to be replaced by the current generation of AI models.

There are some big changes ahead, but the principles
of great hiring have not really changed.

Look for people with the
right skillsets rather than
the right qualifications.

Make happy workers the best advertisement for joining a company.

Be clear and open
with potential talent.

Indeed’s new features have made it easier than ever to achieve these goals. With technology that transforms and improves recruiting for everyone,
the human touch will remain the surest strategy for success in 2025.

Better work begins with better hiring.

See how

1. OECD GDP growth remains stable in the third quarter of 2024, OECD, November 2024

2. Indeed’s 2025 US Jobs & Hiring Trends Report: What to Expect When You’re Expecting a Soft Landing, Indeed, December 2024

3. Consumer Spending, Bureau of Economic Analysis, accessed November 2024

4. Employment Cost Index – September 2024, Bureau of Labor Statistics, October 2024

5. Salary Transparency: Growth Slows, but Momentum Continues, Indeed, October 2024

6. Indeed’s 2025 US Jobs & Hiring Trends Report: What to Expect When You’re Expecting a Soft Landing, Indeed, December 2024

7. Indeed’s 2025 US Jobs & Hiring Trends Report: What to Expect When You’re Expecting a Soft Landing, Indeed, December 2024

8. Indeed’s 2025 US Jobs & Hiring Trends Report: What to Expect When You’re Expecting a Soft Landing, Indeed, December 2024

9. Global Work Wellbeing Report 2024, Indeed, September 2024

10. 2022 research by Dr George Ward cited during The Business Case for Work Wellbeing, Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, Professor of Economics and Director, Wellbeing Research Centre, The University of Oxford – Indeed FutureWorks 2024

11. The Business Case for Work Wellbeing, Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, Professor of Economics and Director, Wellbeing Research Centre, The University of Oxford – Indeed FutureWorks 2024

12. Better Work Begins with Better Hiring, Raj Mukherjee, Executive Vice President of Marketplace Product & UX, Indeed – Indeed FutureWorks 2024

13. The World Can Work Better, Chris Hyams, CEO, Indeed – Indeed FutureWorks 2024

14. Indeed’s 2025 US Jobs & Hiring Trends Report: What to Expect When You’re Expecting a Soft Landing, Indeed, December 2024

15. Indeed’s 2025 US Jobs & Hiring Trends Report: What to Expect When You’re Expecting a Soft Landing, Indeed, December 2024

16. Indeed’s 2025 US Jobs & Hiring Trends Report: What to Expect When You’re Expecting a Soft Landing, Indeed, December 2024