Employer Branding Insights in the US (2025 Stats)

Race for Talent Intensifies 

The report highlights the current recruitment challenges faced on the US market. Hiring needs have increased since 2024 (compared to the rest of the world where it has stayed flat), and the hiring environment is also significantly higher than last year. A key difference for the US market compared to the rest of the world relates to which target groups are the most challenging to hire.  

While IT/digital roles lead the results globally, talent acquisition leaders in the US struggle with a different target group, and quite significantly: 73% of respondents put engineers as the most challenging profile to hire, a steep increase from 2024 (31%). 

Why is the competition to recruit engineers so fierce?

• Advancement in automation, AI and renewable energy

• Insufficient supply of local talent pool

• Stricter visa and immigration constraints to recruit internationally

Key Takeaway

The demand for skilled professionals remains high, making employer branding essential for differentiation and long-term talent pipeline development. In the report, you can find a full comparison breakdown between the US and global respondents around recruitment needs, hiring environments, most challenging profiles to hire, and recruitment marketing budgets. 

AI Recruitment Explodes in the US 

AI-driven recruitment is no longer a futuristic concept—over half of US employers are actively integrating AI tools into hiring processes to streamline candidate selection and enhance personalization in outreach efforts. This is a big jump from 2024 (just 19%) and more than double the global results (25%), underscoring the US’s rapid embrace of AI and automation in recruitment.

The report also highlights a shift in the qualities employers will prioritize in candidates as AI becomes more prevalent compared to current needs.

Soft skills that are gaining in importance:

✅ Learning agility
✅ Adaptability / flexibility
✅ Integrity / ethics
✅ Creativity / innovation

Key Takeaway

AI still being relatively new, it is an interesting blue ocean and a way for companies to differentiate in the war for talent. There are two key areas to focus on. First, how to embed AI tech and merge it with the human touch, to create the ideal (and ethical) candidate experience. Second, how to recognize which qualities will best serve the business in an AI-driven environment, and acting on it soon to not get left behind in the race for top talent. 

Talent Attraction More Important than Employee Engagement 

While 49% of talent leaders in the US have an equal focus on internal employee engagement and external talent attraction when it comes to employer branding efforts in the upcoming budget year, a large portion had a clear preference for external talent attraction, and by a wide margin compared to global respondents.

Despite the focus on external talent, many employer branding leaders in the US feel it is a top priority to focus on improving internal career mobility this year, more so than global respondents. This is likely due to current opportunities for internal career mobility being extremely low and having receded drastically compared to last year. 

Key Takeaway

With limited budget, employer branding leaders in the US have decided to invest their efforts on external talent attraction due to the fierce competition in hiring top talent, despite recognizing the need to improve career mobility opportunities.

Check out the full report for more insights on budget, leading Employer Branding objectives, or how executive management teams view employer branding.  

Changes (or not) in DEI and Remote Work Policies

The political situation in the US clearly seems to have impacted Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiatives. The amount of employer branding leaders who deem DEI very important to their recruitment policy dropped from 77% last year to 54% in 2025, a bigger drop than the rest of the world. Inversely, 15% of respondents feel DEI as not important to their recruitment policy. 

When it comes to remote work, two-thirds have no plans to change their policy in the coming year, in line with global respondents. The main difference between the US market and the rest of world is that a stronger minority plan to cut back on remote working days (17% in the US vs 12% for the rest of the world).

Key Takeaway

It seems like the government initiatives to cut remote work for the federal workforce is not impacting the rest of the workforce, for the moment. On the other hand, DEI is being heavily impacted.

Check out the full report to see that is being reflected in employer value propositions, with a full breakdown of the most and least used attributes in EVPs.

Get the Full US Employer Branding Report 

These insights only scratch the surface of what’s happening in employer branding across the US. The Employer Branding Now 2025 – USA report offers stats that deep dive into: 

🔹 Which channels are being invested in, and to target which profiles
🔹 How companies measure employer brand ROI
🔹 The biggest employer branding challenges and how to overcome them 
🔹 And much more insights!