An analysis that could well change the way many perceive their professional future.
Who are the people signing a new contract today? The question seems simple, but labor market figures show that the answer is changing. A study carried out by the analysis company Revelio Labs, relayed by the Washington Postlooked at millions of hiring data points to understand what recent hires look like. Result: companies are not recruiting quite like they did a few years ago.
The figures first show a significant change in the structure of the active population. The share of workers aged 25 or younger is decreasing significantly. According to Revelio Labs analysis, they represented 14.9% of the working population in 2022. By 2025, this proportion is expected to fall to 8.8%. At the same time, recruitments for this age group have fallen by more than 45% compared to 2019. This does not mean that these candidates are disappearing from the job market, but their presence in new hires is reduced.
Other categories of workers now occupy more space. For example, hiring of people aged 65 and over increased by around 80% over the same period. Certain professions particularly illustrate this evolution. In professions in direct contact with customers, the average age is gradually increasing. Positions such as sales representative, real estate agent or administrative assistant are now occupied by slightly older employees than before. Since 2015, the average age in these positions has increased by around two and a half years.
This transformation is also due to the way companies evaluate candidates. “In general, when the job market is tight, companies recruit young people for entry-level positions”explains Revelio Labs chief economist Lisa Simon. But the current situation does not exactly fit this pattern. Companies today attach great importance to experience and skills already acquired.
Rather than training someone for many months, they often favor candidates capable of quickly understanding the challenges of a position, managing a variety of contacts and leading projects without constant supervision. This is why the average age of people who find a new job is now around 42 years old.
For people who are considering a retraining or a new professional start, this trend changes the perspective. The idea that it would be too late to bounce back after a certain number of years of career corresponds less and less to the reality observed in the data.
