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Now in its fifth edition, the 2024 Job Seeker Survey Report is based on responses from 1,500 job seekers surveyed in February 2024. This report analyzes the perceptions and preferences of active and passive candidates across all major industries and provides important insights into what candidates want and can influence your organization’s talent acquisition and retention strategies to optimize success.

Do you know the differences between Recognition, Reward and Award?

Recognition is an intangible acknowledgment of people’s behaviors, personal efforts or contributions. Reward is something tangible given in return for service or effort, and an Award is a symbol of recognition for an achievement or milestone.

February marked the 39th straight month of job growth, reflecting an exceptionally strong recovery from the widespread job losses during the pandemic. Unemployment rose to 3.9%, a two-year high, but remained under 4% for the 25th consecutive month. This is the longest stretch of unemployment below 4% since the 1960s. While we have a strong labor market, fears that it was getting too hot again were somewhat allayed this month with the rise in unemployment, the revision of the January and December job numbers, and a weak rise in wages.

The U.S. labor market started 2024 with the strongest jobs report in recent history by adding 353,000 jobs in January, far above the Dow Jones estimate of 185,000. In addition, November and December job gains were revised, adding a combined 126,000 more jobs to the 2023 year-end total. Job growth was widespread across sectors in January (e.g., health care, retail trade, government, social assistance, and manufacturing), showing a healthy market on solid ground. The unemployment rate remained at 3.7% for the 3rd consecutive month and under 4% for the 24th consecutive month.