Beyond Job Board Dependency

Inside the report:

• The rising cost of job board hires: how cost-per-hire moved across technology, healthcare, and all occupations in 2025, and why the labor market is not the cause.
• The channel mix in growth firms: no single source does even a quarter of the work. Job boards carry 23.9% of placements, direct outreach 23.4%, ATS rediscovery 16.4%, with the rest split across referrals, the career site, and AI tools. The spread is deliberate, not default.
• What a channel returns: how referral and job board placements compared across 882,004 hires on days worked (50 to 82% more for referrals) and on the likelihood of a second assignment.
• The execution gap: where every firm says it is going on AI, referrals, and ATS rediscovery versus where it actually is today.

Five datasets, read together. Independent, StaffingHub, and Staffing Referrals research on what created profitable growth in 2025, and what cost firms the dependency tax.