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

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.

Embracing pay transparency

Paying healthy
wages

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. 
 

True

False

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

True

False

Workplaces with higher wellbeing scores tend to attract more candidates.

True

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?

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

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