By Katie Merritt, Senior Research and Data Manager, Robert Half
Economic uncertainty continues into the second half of 2025. While the job market is expected to see gradual improvements, challenges remain. The labor market isn't seeing massive layoffs, but companies also aren't expanding their hiring plans significantly. That can make it harder for unemployed workers to find jobs, with the number of people searching for work for more than 27 weeks jumping 11% year over year to 1.8 million in July, government data shows.
As of August, the job market is seeing a modest slowdown. The BLS reports that the U.S. only added 73,000 jobs in July, which is below what’s required to keep pace with population growth. Job seekers should focus on developing in-demand skills as the need for skilled talent remains high.
Robert Half’s workplace research shows most employers in the United States entered 2025 in a hiring mode. Nearly six in 10 managers (57%) at companies of all sizes said they plan to add new permanent positions to their workforce in the second half of this year. Although fewer hiring managers plan to expand their teams compared to the first half of the year, the decline is modest, and many organizations continue to recruit for critical roles. Our research shows a top driver for hiring is the launch of new projects or the resumption of postponed ones.
This post takes a deeper dive into research for the latest edition of the Demand for Skilled Talent report, highlighting key industries expected to recruit talent in the second half of 2025 and the jobs expected to be in high demand.
What industries are hiring right now?
What are the industries with the most job openings?
Mirroring last year's strong performance, the business and professional services, financial services, healthcare, manufacturing, and tech and IT industries saw the strongest annual job growth in the first half of 2025. These industries are poised to expand their employment opportunities throughout the second half of 2025, as well, according to Robert Half’s research.
Together, these five industries contributed over 1.2 million new positions to the U.S. economy in the first half of 2025 (+1,256,500 jobs).
Here is a deeper dive into hiring trends in industries with the most job openings.
Business and professional services hiring trends
In Q2 2025, the business services industry posted a 3.5% unemployment rate. This industry also had the most job openings in the first six months of 2025 (+730,800 jobs) compared with all other industries that Robert Half supports with our talent solutions.
Thirty-four percent of job openings in business and professional services were in tech and IT, 26% were in administrative and customer support, and 24% were in finance and accounting.
Here’s a look at some of the top jobs U.S. employers were recruiting for in the first half of 2025:
Tech and IT
Senior software engineer (+39,700 jobs)
Software engineer (+28,300 jobs)
Network/Cloud engineer (+10,400 jobs)
Systems engineer (+10,300 jobs)
Administrative and customer support
Administrative project manager (+39,100 jobs)
Customer service specialist (+33,700 jobs)
Administrative assistant (+28,000 jobs)
Receptionist (+13,700 jobs)
Finance and accounting
Staff accountant (+10,700 jobs)
Senior accountant (+10,000 jobs)
Tax manager (+9,500 jobs)
Business analyst (+8,900 jobs)
Accounting specialist (+8,400 jobs)
Consumer products hiring trends
Consumer products was the fifth-largest industry contributing to the job market in the first half of 2025, with 94,000 openings. However, it also saw the most significant decrease in job openings from last year, falling by 15%.
Administrative and customer support roles made up over 50% of the new professional openings within this industry, totaling nearly 50,000 jobs. Other prominent roles in the consumer products space included:
Customer service specialist (+23,000 jobs)
Customer service manager (+5,400 jobs)
Senior software engineer (+3,400 jobs)
Customer experience specialist (+2,900 jobs)
Administrative assistant (+2,600 jobs)
Receptionist (+2,300 jobs)
Software engineer (+2,100 jobs)
Education services hiring trends
Universities and educational organizations recruited talent for 45,600 job openings in the United States in the first half of 2025, a 14% increase from the same period in 2024. Most roles were in administrative and customer support (38%), followed by finance and accounting (22%), and tech and IT (20%).
The unemployment rate in education services in 2024 was 2.6%. In the first six months of 2025, the most in-demand jobs in this industry included:
Administrative assistant (+5,800 jobs)
Executive assistant (+1,500 jobs)
Administrative project manager (+1,200 jobs)
Office manager (+1,000 jobs)
Financial services hiring trends
Employers in the financial services industry posted136,700 jobs in the first half of 2025. That is a 70% increase from the first half of 2024, and it marks the eighth consecutive quarter of growth since Q3 2023. Year-over-year growth was strongest among jobs within finance and accounting and technology departments.
In this industry, 34% of the jobs were in tech and IT , while 30% were in finance and accounting, and 22% were in administrative and customer support departments. The unemployment rate for financial services was 2.8% in 2025.
The most in-demand tech and IT jobs in the financial services industry included:
Senior software engineer (+12,700 jobs)
Software engineer (+4,100 jobs)
Data engineer (+2,200 jobs)
IT product manager (+1,400 jobs)
The most in-demand finance and accounting jobs in the financial services industry included:
Mortgage underwriter (+3,200 jobs)
Loan processor (+2,900 jobs)
Business analyst (+2,400 jobs)
Senior financial analyst (+1,800 jobs)
Government and public sector hiring trends
Government and public sector employers added 31,700 jobs in the U.S. in the first half of 2025, a 10% decrease from 2024. Most openings were in administrative and customer support (41%), followed by finance and accounting (26%) and tech and IT (18%).
The most in-demand jobs in this sector, which saw a 1.8% rate of unemployment in 2025, included:
Administrative assistant (+5,000 jobs)
Customer service specialist (+1,400 jobs)
Accounting specialist (+1,100 jobs)
Office specialist (+900 jobs)
Legal assistant (+900 jobs)
Healthcare hiring trends
Among the professional roles that Robert Half places in the healthcare industry, there were close to 150,000 new job openings added in the U.S. in the first half of 2025.
The bulk of these jobs were administrative (40%) or healthcare (25%) roles, including:
Administrative assistant (+10,000 jobs)
Medical front desk coordinator (+9,900 jobs)
Medical receptionist (+9,400 jobs)
Office manager (+7,500 jobs)
Customer service specialist (+6,100 jobs)
Patient access/services specialist (+4,800 jobs)
Executive assistant (+3,800 jobs)
Medical billing specialist (+3,300 jobs)
Manufacturing hiring trends
The manufacturing industry added more than 153,800 new job openings in the U.S. during the first half of 2025. These jobs were primarily in companies’ tech and IT (34%), administrative and customer support (31%), and finance and accounting (20%) departments.
In-demand roles in this industry, which saw an unemployment rate of 3.6% in 2025, included:
Customer service specialist (+18,200 jobs)
Senior software engineer (+11,200 jobs)
Software engineer (+7,300 jobs)
Administrative project manager (+6,400 jobs)
Administrative assistant (+4,500 jobs)
Customer service manager (+4,000 jobs)
Systems engineer (+3,700 jobs)
Tech and IT hiring trends
After a sluggish few years hallmarked with layoffs at major tech companies, the technology industry had considerable gains in the first half of 2025 compared to the same time in 2024. Companies in the technology sector primarily hired for technology (50%) and marketing and creative (20%) roles.
The following technology and marketing and creative roles were in especially high demand in the tech and IT industry:
Senior software engineer (+10,800 jobs)
Software engineer (+6,200 jobs)
Product marketing manager (+4,100 jobs)
IT product manager (+2,600 jobs)
Network/cloud engineer (+1,800 jobs)
AI/ML engineer (+1,700 jobs)
Data engineer (+1,600 jobs)
Cybersecurity engineer (+1,500 jobs)
Systems engineer (+1,100 jobs)
Get more insights in Robert Half’s Demand for Skilled Talent report
View the report
As to the question, “What industries are hiring right now?” The answer is many. However, Robert Half’s research for our Demand for Skilled Talent report suggests many employers will likely struggle to meet their hiring goals in the months ahead. Ninety-two percent of U.S. hiring managers report they are already having difficulty locating talent—with a third (33%) saying it is very challenging.
If this is not challenging enough in this economy and job market, nearly a third (30%) of business leaders reported they have made a bad hire in the past two years, and 57% of those leaders said their team experience turnover as a result.
For tips on how to overcome hiring challenges in the current labor market, plus more data on U.S. hiring and employment trends in 2025, read the full Demand for Skilled Talent report.
Methodology
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Industry calculations are based on job postings provided by Textkernel. Positions are categorized into more than 425 job titles within Robert Half’s 2025 Salary Guide using a proprietary mapping methodology that employs state-of-the-art large language models. This dataset includes roles across the finance and accounting, technology, marketing and creative, legal, administrative and customer support, human resources, and healthcare support professions.
