Dive Brief:

• Recruiters, software engineers and marketers are more likely than other professionals to consider external job opportunities, data from Workforce Logiq showed.
• According to The 2020 Workforce Management Benchmark Report, published Feb. 12, the highest percentage of people who are open to unsolicited recruiting messages are recruiters themselves (115% higher than the national average). Software engineers are second (105% above the average), followed by marketers (82% above the average). Skilled tradespeople were found to be the most stable workers, at 81% below the national average.
• Workforce Logiq also measured talent retention risks using an AI model that aims to predict how likely it is that employees and knowledge workers would be receptive to recruiting messages and job opportunities. Industries with the highest talent retention risk score were in quarrying, mining and oil and gas extraction, with the finance and insurance industry having the second most volatile workforce.

Dive Insight:

Such volatility may not be going away any time soon; the results of a 2019 iHire survey showed that job-hopping is becoming less taboo. Of the 1,000 active and passive job seekers polled, more than half voluntarily left their job in the last five years. Three-quarters said they plan to remain with their current employers for no more than five years and 31% plan to leave within a year. Employers may have to adust their expectations when it comes to retention while competing even harder for talent.

But competing for talent isn't getting any easier in today's tight labor market. To better compete with rising upstarts, legacy organizations may want to emphasize their offering of less trendy but highly desirable perquisites to attract the right candidate, including consistency and better access to technology, training and other benefits, experts previously told HR Dive.

Recruiters are sitting in an especially good position, various reports show. A LinkedIn report found that the demand for recruiters has grown by 63% in the last for years, a trend likely driven by the competition for talent. Recruiters — like any professionals in high demand —  will likely have their pick of employers and be in a good position to negotiate competitive terms of employment, including pay and benefits.