The 2026 job market is slow and strange on both sides: employers are hiring cautiously, and IT and professional services candidates are less responsive than at any time in the last decade. At MJL Recruiting & Consulting my advice is for employers to cut requirements to 3-5 must-haves and offer remote or light hybrid work, and for job seekers to stop applying online and work their network instead.
We're more than halfway through 2026, and the job market is still stuck in a strange holding pattern. Not just on the hiring side, but on the candidate side too. If you're an employer wondering why your req has been open for three months, or a job seeker wondering why nobody's calling you back, you're not imagining it. Here's what I'm actually seeing on both sides of the table right now.
What is the job market like in 2026?
In two words: slow and strange. Employers are still hiring cautiously. But what's more unusual is what's happening on the candidate side: responsiveness is the lowest I've seen it in a decade. The most common reply I get isn't "not interested." It's "I'm happy where I'm at." That's a normal answer from finance candidates. It is not a normal answer from IT and professional services candidates, and seeing it at this volume is a real shift.
Where did all the laid-off tech and engineering candidates go?
A lot of people laid off from tech and engineering roles in the last six months have effectively disappeared from the visible market. My best guess, based on what I'm seeing, is that they:
- Landed a contract role somewhere
- Are running out the clock on severance
- Made a career pivot (hard to do right now, but happening)
- Simply stopped advertising that they're looking at all
How should employers write job requirements in 2026?
Stop hiring for Purple Unicorns. Too many job descriptions right now are describing a purple unicorn with pink polka dots that lives on a grassy hill in Antarctica. And when a company somehow finds one, they build artificial fences the unicorn can never quite clear.
My recommendation:
- Cut your requirements down to 3-5 must-haves and 3-5 nice-to-haves.
- Let go of the university pedigree requirement.
- Let go of the "no contract work" bias.
- Unless someone's genuinely job-hopping every 3-6 months, let go of the tenure obsession too.
Should employers offer remote or hybrid work?
Unless the work physically has to happen in your building (the product can't leave the office, or the role requires face-to-face customer interaction), let people work remote. If you're set on hybrid, cap it at 1-2 days a week. People will commute for that. Three days is consistently where I see candidates walk away.
And here's the part that still surprises employers: remote flexibility isn't just a retention tool, it's a cost lever. Candidates who can work from home will typically accept 10-15% less than they would for an in-office role.
If you're trying to figure out what the right mix looks like for your team, that's a conversation I'm always happy to have.
What is the best job search strategy right now?
Stop applying online. If you're job searching right now, the single highest-leverage move you can make is to stop relying on job boards and start working your network.
And "your network" means literally anyone you know. The goal isn't finding people who already know about the opening; it's getting introduced to people who know about openings you haven't heard of yet. A networked job search isn't about what people know. It's about who they know.
What should job seekers fix on their resume?
A few things worth fixing on your resume right now:
- Explain your gaps. Caregiving, a health issue, a layoff, career development: most employers can work with a reasonable explanation. What they can't work with is silence.
- Label layoffs and contract roles as what they are. Trying to obscure it reads worse than just stating it plainly.
- Write like an achiever, not a doer. A doer's resume lists tasks. An achiever's resume shows what the company gained: money saved, problems solved, results delivered.
- Use AI to sharpen your bullets, not to write your resume. Give it your real accomplishments and let it help you phrase them better. A fully AI-generated resume is easy to spot, and it makes recruiters wonder if there's a real person behind it.
How can a fractional recruiter help your hiring process?
I'm not looking to go back to working full-time in-house for one company, but I'm very much open to jumping into your hiring process on a fractional basis, wherever the bottleneck is. That could look like:
- Hiring blitz support: reviewing and screening applicants when volume outpaces your internal team's capacity
- Specialized hiring: filling roles outside your team's usual scope
- Interview process refinement: figuring out where candidates are dropping off and what to cut
- Interviewer training and rubric-building: sharpening your questions and how you score answers
- Sourcing: when your applicant flow has dried up and no one internally has the time or tools to go find candidates
Most of this work is hourly or project-based. Specialized hiring is typically the exception: either a monthly retainer or an hourly-plus-success-fee model, depending on what fits.
Frequently asked questions about the 2026 job market
Why is hiring so slow in 2026? MJL Recruiting & Consulting sees two things at once: employers are hiring cautiously, and candidate responsiveness is the lowest it's been in a decade. Many IT and professional services candidates now say they're happy where they are, and many laid-off tech workers have moved to contract roles or stopped actively looking.
How many requirements should a job description have? MJL Recruiting & Consulting recommends 3-5 must-haves and 3-5 nice-to-haves. Dropping university pedigree requirements, the "no contract work" bias, and strict tenure rules also widens the qualified candidate pool.
How many hybrid days will candidates accept? MJL Recruiting & Consulting finds that candidates will commute for 1-2 days a week, but three days is consistently where they walk away. Fully remote roles also let employers offer less: candidates typically accept 10-15% less to work from home.
Is applying to jobs online still worth it? MJL Recruiting & Consulting's advice is to stop relying on job boards and work your network instead. Talk to anyone you know, because the goal is getting introduced to people who know about openings you haven't heard of yet.
Should you use AI to write your resume? MJL Recruiting & Consulting recommends using AI to sharpen your bullet points, not to write the whole resume. A fully AI-generated resume is easy to spot and makes recruiters wonder if there's a real person behind it.
H2: Let's talk
If any of this resonates, whether you're an employer rethinking your hiring approach or a candidate stuck in the job search, I'd love to connect. Reach out here and let's talk through what's actually going on in your search or your hiring process.