Why Companies Now Take Twice as Long to Hire

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If you’re waiting to hear back after a job interview, prepare to wait longer.

The average hiring time in the United States increased from 12.6 days to 22.9 days between 2010 and 2014, according to a new research paper from Glassdoor.

While that may sound frustrating, Americans actually don’t realize how good they have it. Among the six countries examined, only Canada has a shorter time period between interview and hire — 22.1 days.

The research paper — titled “Why Is Hiring Taking Longer? New Insights from Glassdoor Data” — is based on an analysis of more than 344,000 interview reviews posted to Glassdoor’s website and an examination of various other factors.

Hiring times are longest for public-sector jobs, such as those of government employees. Those jobs require an additional 21.9 to 28.8 days to fill on average compared with typical non-government jobs. The shortest hiring times were in the retail industry, which took 2.4 to 8.5 fewer days than typical jobs.

The longest interview processes were for jobs as police officers, which average about 128 days to fill. Entry-level marketing jobs have the shortest hiring time — about four days.

One reason hiring is taking longer is the more common use of screening — especially background checks and skill tests. Glassdoor’s chief economist, Andrew Chamberlain, who wrote the research paper, tells CBS News:

“Every one of those screens adds time to the hiring process. More and more jobs today require creativity and judgment and are non-routine tasks and are hard to automate. These jobs are harder to screen for.”

One-on-one interviews (68 percent) and telephone interviews (56 percent) are the most commonly reported screening methods. Intelligence tests (6 percent) and candidate presentations (7 percent) are the least common.

Background checks have increased sharply since 2010, however. In 2010, they were used in 25 percent of hiring screens. In 2014, that jumped to 42 percent.

Which job screening method has been most common in your experience? What do you think of the increasing use of background checks? Share your thoughts below or on Facebook.

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