The results are in. Aspen Tech Labs has released its U.S. 2025 Jobs Report, offering a comprehensive look at how the labor market shifted over the past twelve months. If 2024 was defined by post-pandemic recalibration, 2025 was the year the market found its “new normal”—a period characterized by cooling demand, steady wages, and a more calculated approach to hiring.
Here are the primary takeaways from the report and what they mean for the year ahead.
1. The Big Picture: Hiring Takes a Breath
The most notable headline from 2025 is a broad cooling of activity. Total active job openings dipped by 3% year-over-year, moving from 7.73 million in December 2024 to 7.5 million by the end of 2025.
This wasn’t a sudden drop but rather a consistent, month-over-month trend. Employers are no longer in a “hiring at all costs” phase; instead, they’ve become increasingly selective, focusing on strategic roles rather than rapid expansion.
2. Direct Employers vs. Agencies
While both sectors saw a decline, recruitment agencies proved slightly more resilient than direct employers:
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Direct Employer Postings: Fell by 4.1% YoY.
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Agency Postings: Fell by a modest 1.2% YoY.
By the end of the year, recruitment agencies accounted for nearly 19% of all U.S. job listings, suggesting that many companies are leaning on external partners to find specific, high-quality talent in a tighter market.
3. Pay Transparency and Wage Trends
2025 was a landmark year for “showing the numbers.” More than half of all U.S. job postings now include salary information, driven by both legislative changes and candidate expectations.
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Median Full-Time Salary: Reached $62,400, a 3.4% increase from 2024.
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Momentum: Most of this growth happened in the first half of the year; wages remained largely flat from July through December.
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Part-Time Pay: Remained steady at a median of $18.00 per hour.
4. Remote Work: The Dust Has Settled
Despite the ongoing headlines about “Return to Office” mandates, remote work hasn’t disappeared—it has simply found its niche. Remote roles accounted for 3.65% of all active job postings in 2025.
Remote hiring is now heavily concentrated in specific professional “pockets,” primarily:
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Information Technology (IT)
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Human Resources
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Marketing
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Legal
5. The Tech Landscape: Winners and Losers
The Talent Acquisition (TA) Tech sector mirrored the broader market with a 6.6% decline in hiring. However, it wasn’t a downward trend for everyone. While some platforms scaled back, industry leaders like Paylocity, Workday, and Rippling actually saw year-over-year gains, signaling a flight to quality and established platforms within the HR tech space.
Note on the Data: This report is powered by real-time data scraped directly from over 350,000 employer career sites. By focusing on direct-source listings, we ensure the insights reflect actual hiring intent rather than “stale” or duplicated third-party postings.
Get the Full Story
The broad trends are just the beginning. For a deeper dive into state-by-state data, specific metro area surges, and the rise of AI startups in the hiring space, you can access the complete findings below.
