The May numbers were encouraging. The breakdown is where it gets interesting.
The May jobs report came in well above expectations — 172,000 jobs added, unemployment steady at 4.3%, and upward revisions to March and April that put an additional 93,000 jobs on the books. It’s the strongest stretch of hiring in over a year, and the headlines were understandably upbeat.
But when you look at which sectors drove the growth, the picture shifts — especially if you work in marketing, HR, finance, or operations.
Where the jobs went
A few sectors did most of the heavy lifting. Leisure and hospitality added 70,000 jobs — nearly five times its 12-month average. Local government added 55,000. Healthcare contributed another 35,000. Together, those three accounted for the vast majority of the headline number.
Professional and business services — the category that covers most of the roles our clients hire for — added roughly 6,000. Financial activities lost 22,000. Information lost 2,000. Construction, manufacturing, and retail were essentially flat.
Take out hospitality, government, and healthcare, and the rest of the economy added about 47,000 jobs. That’s the number that’s closer to what most professionals are experiencing.
The “low-hire, low-fire” market is still the market
Indeed Hiring Lab called it “one strong headline, but two realities” — a framing that holds up. The hiring rate and the quit rate both remain depressed. People who have jobs are staying in them and the people who don’t are waiting longer to find one. Numbers show that the share of unemployed workers out of work for 27 weeks or more rose to 27.5%, up from 20.4% a year ago.
For most white-collar professionals, the market doesn’t feel like a comeback. It feels like a holding pattern.
But openings are building under the surface
This is where it gets more interesting. The April JOLTS data — released the same week as the jobs report — showed total job openings jumping to 7.6 million, the highest since May 2024. Professional and business services led that increase with a 668,000-job surge in openings, far outpacing every other sector.
Companies are posting roles and signaling intent. They’re just not hiring at the same pace they’re posting. That gap between openings and hires is one of the defining features of this market right now.
Small businesses are quietly leading
ADP’s private-sector report for May came in at 122,000 jobs added — the strongest month since January 2025. The interesting part wasn’t the total, it was the mix. Small businesses with fewer than 50 employees accounted for 67,000 of those hires — more than half. ADP’s chief economist described hiring as more broad-based in May than it’s been in years.
For mid-market companies, that’s worth paying attention to. Larger firms are holding back while smaller, more nimble organizations are moving.
Hiring is selective — and the talent bar is rising
Robert Half’s post-report analysis included a stat worth sitting with: just 6% of hiring managers say they have the talent needed to complete their highest-priority projects this year. Meanwhile, 59% of professionals report burnout from working on understaffed teams.
That’s the tension underneath all of this. Teams are lean. Capacity is stretched. Openings are growing. But hiring decisions are being made carefully — not because demand isn’t there, but because the cost of a miss on a lean team is higher than it’s been in a long time.
What recruiting leaders are focused on
SHRM’s 2026 recruiting executive survey found that 41% of recruiting leaders ranked midlevel nonmanagerial roles as their single biggest hiring need — the core of most mid-market org charts. And 71% expect to list salary ranges on job postings more often this year, with 42% citing wage inflation as a concern.
The pattern is clear: companies want experienced, mid-career professionals who can step in and contribute quickly. And the conversation around pay is becoming more transparent — not because companies want it to be, but because candidates increasingly expect it.
Looking ahead to the second half of the year
The market isn’t broken and it isn’t booming. It’s repositioning. Openings are building, small and mid-sized companies are moving first, and the talent that’s available isn’t being competed for the way it was two years ago. Whether you’re thinking about your own career or planning headcount for Q3, the headline number and your industry’s reality might be telling very different stories.
For a closer look at what compensation looks like right now across Marketing, HR, Finance, Operations, and Digital — including Minnesota vs. national benchmarks for 28 roles — our 2026 Mid-Year Salary Trends report has the full breakdown.
Download the 2026 Mid-Year Salary Trends Report
Want data specific to your roles? Custom salary benchmarking starts at $500 for up to 10 roles. Reach out to jamie.duong@celarity.com or visit celarity.com/custom-salary-report.