State of the Job Market: Who's Hiring Right Now (June 2026)
An interview-rate analysis of the live U.S. job market. We rank the job families, titles, industries, and companies actually converting applications into interview requests over the last 90 days.
SIMPLEAPPLY · STATE OF THE JOB MARKET
An interview-rate analysis of the live U.S. job market · June 2026
Across the SimpleApply platform, the metric we care about is not how many applications get submitted — it's how many turn into real interview requests from employers. The interview rate is the honest signal for where hiring momentum is happening right now.
Auto-apply has a reputation problem — for good reason when it's spray-and-pray. But when matching is done properly — filtering for role, seniority, location, and skill fit before each application goes out — the interview rate climbs above what candidates typically achieve applying one-by-one. This report ranks job titles, industries, and companies by their interview rate to answer one question: where is real hiring happening right now?
Scale
100s of Thousands
Applications submitted
Outcomes
Thousands
Interview requests
Conversion
~2.5%
Platform interview rate
Top 10 Highest-Interview-Rate Job Families
Ranked by interview request rate over the last 90 days. Title variants consolidated (Customer Success Manager + Senior CSM + Client Success Manager → one family). Minimum 200 applications per family.
| # | Job Family | Interview Rate | vs. Platform Avg |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Finance & Accounting | 10.33% | 4.2x |
| 2 | Sales (BDR/SDR/Reps/Mgrs) | 6.33% | 2.6x |
| 3 | Solutions / Sales Engineering | 5.70% | 2.3x |
| 4 | Account Executive (all levels) | 5.05% | 2.0x |
| 5 | Account Manager (all levels) | 4.64% | 1.9x |
| 6 | Product Manager (all levels) | 3.85% | 1.6x |
| 7 | Customer Success Manager (all levels) | 3.81% | 1.5x |
| 8 | Data Engineer (all levels) | 2.80% | 1.1x |
| 9 | Marketing | 2.39% | 0.96x |
| 10 | Software Engineer (all levels) | 2.07% | 0.83x |
What the data tells us
Revenue and finance roles dominate. Six of the top eight families are in sales, customer success, or finance — the functions companies are filling fastest in this cycle.
Software Engineering ranks last among major job families. The most-applied-to function is also the most competitive; standing out matters more here than anywhere else.
Where you apply matters as much as how. Top families convert 2–4× the platform average. Targeting the right role family changes outcomes more than volume.
Top Job Titles by Interview Rate
Specific normalized job titles. Use this view to see how seniority bands differ. Minimum 100 applications in 90 days. Top 25 shown.
| # | Job Title | Interview Rate | vs. Platform |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Full-Stack Software Engineer | 22.55% | 9.1x |
| 2 | Accountant | 18.45% | 7.4x |
| 3 | Director of Product | 13.80% | 5.6x |
| 4 | Senior Account Manager | 12.85% | 5.2x |
| 5 | Sales Representative | 12.16% | 4.9x |
| 6 | Manager of Customer Success | 12.00% | 4.8x |
| 7 | Account Director | 9.52% | 3.8x |
| 8 | Sales Development Representative | 9.48% | 3.8x |
| 9 | Sales Engineer | 9.44% | 3.8x |
| 10 | Finance Manager | 9.41% | 3.8x |
| 11 | Technical Customer Success Manager | 8.93% | 3.6x |
| 12 | Lead Data Engineer | 8.74% | 3.5x |
| 13 | Data Architect | 8.59% | 3.5x |
| 14 | Staff Accountant | 7.92% | 3.2x |
| 15 | Marketing Coordinator | 7.56% | 3.1x |
| 16 | Partner Account Manager | 7.03% | 2.8x |
| 17 | Senior Backend Engineer | 6.92% | 2.8x |
| 18 | Talent Acquisition Partner | 6.92% | 2.8x |
| 19 | Director of Finance | 6.80% | 2.7x |
| 20 | Staff Product Designer | 6.73% | 2.7x |
| 21 | Systems Administrator | 6.45% | 2.6x |
| 22 | Product Marketing Director | 6.30% | 2.5x |
| 23 | Enterprise Customer Success Manager | 6.19% | 2.5x |
| 24 | VP of Marketing | 6.01% | 2.4x |
| 25 | Technical Product Manager | 5.99% | 2.4x |
Reading between the lines
Seniority pays at the top of the funnel. Senior Account Manager (#4, 12.85%) outperforms Account Manager (4.31%) by nearly 3×. Director of Product (#3, 13.80%) lands interviews at 3.6× the rate of a generic Product Manager.
Sales runs the table. Sales Representative (#5), SDR (#8), Sales Engineer (#9), and Account Director (#7) all land in the top 10.
Accounting and finance are quietly hot. Accountant (#2, 18.45%), Staff Accountant (#14), Director of Finance (#19), Finance Manager (#10).
Top 10 Industries by Interview Rate
Which sectors are converting interest to interviews fastest. Minimum 100 applications in 90 days.
| # | Industry | Interview Rate | vs. Platform |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Aviation and Aerospace Component Manufacturing | 6.50% | 2.6x |
| 2 | Data Security Software Products | 5.98% | 2.4x |
| 3 | Technology, Information and Internet | 3.73% | 1.5x |
| 4 | Defense and Space Manufacturing | 3.66% | 1.5x |
| 5 | Marketing Services | 3.45% | 1.4x |
| 6 | Business Consulting and Services | 3.42% | 1.4x |
| 7 | Biotechnology Research | 3.24% | 1.3x |
| 8 | Motor Vehicle Manufacturing | 3.24% | 1.3x |
| 9 | Retail Apparel and Fashion | 3.16% | 1.3x |
| 10 | Software Development | 3.04% | 1.2x |
Industry signals worth noting
Defense and aerospace top the list. Aviation & Aerospace Component Manufacturing (#1, 6.50%) and Defense & Space Manufacturing (#4, 3.66%) outperform every consumer sector. Multi-year defense budgets and re-shoring of aerospace supply chains are driving real interview demand.
Security spending is real. Data Security Software Products lands at #2 (5.98%); Computer & Network Security at #12 (2.73%, just above platform average). Cyber-budget growth is converting to interview throughput.
Tech is hiring — but selectively. Software Development sits at #10 (3.04%), and Technology, Information & Internet at #3 (3.73%). Both above platform average, but neither leads.
What's missing from the top 10. Financial Services (1.79%), Hospitals & Health Care (1.60%), Retail (2.18%), and Pharmaceutical Manufacturing (1.80%) all sit below the platform average. Large traditional employers in these sectors are filling many roles internally or through executive search.
Top 25 Companies by Interview Volume
Companies that produced the most interview requests for SimpleApply candidates over the last 90 days. Filtered for typical employer behavior (excludes staffing, MLM, training programs, and small-volume entities).
| # | Company | Interviews |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Workato | 25 |
| 2 | Okta | 24 |
| 3 | Andela | 22 |
| 4 | SpyCloud | 21 |
| 5 | Snowflake | 21 |
| 6 | Zip | 21 |
| 7 | Lumimeds | 21 |
| 8 | HubSpot | 19 |
| 9 | Kapitus | 17 |
| 10 | Vantaca | 16 |
| 11 | MongoDB | 15 |
| 12 | OpenLoop Health | 15 |
| 13 | Roku | 15 |
| 14 | Planet | 15 |
| 15 | NICE | 14 |
| 16 | PayPal | 13 |
| 17 | Weave | 12 |
| 18 | Breezeway | 12 |
| 19 | West Monroe | 12 |
| 20 | Temporal Technologies | 12 |
| 21 | Thumbtack | 12 |
| 22 | Unframe | 12 |
| 23 | Huron | 12 |
| 24 | Klaviyo | 11 |
| 25 | New Relic | 11 |
B2B SaaS is the hiring engine
Infrastructure and developer-tooling brands dominate. Okta, Snowflake, MongoDB, HubSpot, Roku, Klaviyo, New Relic, Temporal, and Thumbtack are all in the top 25. These aren't the loudest companies on social media — they're the ones quietly returning interview requests.
Mid-market wins over mega-cap. Companies in the 500–5,000-employee range dominate. Many household-name tech employers don't make this list — they appear instead on the next page.
Non-tech still shows up. NICE (enterprise CX), PayPal, Huron (consulting), Planet (geospatial), West Monroe (consulting). The common factor isn't sector — it's active inbound recruiting.
Top 25 Companies with Zero Interview Responses*
Companies that received 100+ applications through SimpleApply over the last 90 days but produced zero interview requests* in return. We do not assert these are ghost jobs — many of these employers are legitimate, prestigious, and may simply be highly selective or contact candidates outside our view. Read this list as a research signal worth noting, not a verdict.
| # | Company | Applications |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Instacart | 647 |
| 2 | Affirm | 611 |
| 3 | Jerry.ai | 482 |
| 4 | GitLab | 436 |
| 5 | Databricks | 412 |
| 6 | Recruiting From Scratch | 396 |
| 7 | Smartsheet | 335 |
| 8 | Anthropic | 328 |
| 9 | Grafana Labs | 298 |
| 10 | Chainguard | 292 |
| 11 | DoorDash USA | 290 |
| 12 | Zeta Global | 269 |
| 13 | Whatnot | 261 |
| 14 | Life360 | 260 |
| 15 | 1Password | 255 |
| 16 | INFUSE | 246 |
| 17 | Zscaler | 234 |
| 18 | 228 | |
| 19 | Veeva Systems | 218 |
| 20 | Spotify | 216 |
| 21 | Kraken | 214 |
| 22 | Clover Health | 212 |
| 23 | DigitalOcean | 211 |
| 24 | OpenAI | 209 |
| 25 | Torc Robotics | 204 |
* Important context about this list. "Zero interview responses" means SimpleApply has not observed an interview signal from these companies through the channels we monitor. We are not asserting these companies post ghost jobs or fail to hire. Several plausible explanations exist: (a) candidates were contacted directly through channels outside our visibility; (b) these are highly selective employers whose hiring filters reject most applications; (c) listed roles were filled internally during the window. The list is offered as a research signal worth investigating, not a determination of ghost-job behavior. Companies listed should not be characterized as ghost-job posters based on this data alone.
Methodology & Notes
Data source & period
All rankings come from the SimpleApply platform's application telemetry over the trailing 90 days ending June 02, 2026.
How interview rate is calculated
Interview rate = (interview requests received) ÷ (applications submitted), both measured over the same 90-day window. Interview requests are identified from interview signals received through SimpleApply's platform. Application acknowledgments, rejections, and informational notices are excluded from the count.
Sample-size requirements
Rankings filter for statistically meaningful sample sizes within each ranked group (job families, titles, industries, and companies). Aggregations dominated by staffing organizations, training programs, single-entity recruiters, and other accounts that do not reflect typical employer behavior are excluded from company rankings.
Coverage caveats
Job titles are sourced from a normalized title field with high coverage on interview-producing applications. Industries use the LinkedIn-style taxonomy mapped via the originating company; coverage is partial, so absolute industry counts understate the actual mix but relative ranking is reliable within the tagged set.
Job family composition
Raw normalized titles are grouped into families to consolidate seniority levels and naming variants. The table below lists each family and its constituent titles.
| Family | Variants merged into this family |
|---|---|
| Product Manager (all levels) | Product Manager · Senior Product Manager · Principal Product Manager · Staff Product Manager · Technical Product Manager · Director of Product · Director of Product Management · Group Product Manager · Enterprise AI Product Manager · Head of Product · VP of Product · Lead Product Manager |
| Software Engineer (all levels) | Software Engineer · Senior Software Engineer · Staff Software Engineer · Principal Software Engineer · Lead Software Engineer · Full-Stack Software Engineer · Full Stack Engineer · Backend Software Engineer · Software Engineer III · Software Engineer II · Frontend Software Engineer · Frontend Engineer · Backend Engineer · Platform Engineer · Senior Platform Engineer |
| Customer Success Manager (all levels) | Customer Success Manager · Senior Customer Success Manager · Client Success Manager · Enterprise Customer Success Manager · Senior Manager, Customer Success · Manager of Customer Success · Customer Success Director · Director of Customer Success · Senior Client Success Manager · Strategic Customer Success Manager |
| Account Manager (all levels) | Account Manager · Senior Account Manager · Technical Account Manager · Strategic Account Manager · Key Account Manager · Enterprise Account Manager |
| Account Executive (all levels) | Account Executive · Senior Account Executive · Inside Sales Account Executive · Enterprise Account Executive · Mid-Market Account Executive |
| Data Engineer (all levels) | Data Engineer · Senior Data Engineer · Lead Data Engineer · Staff Data Engineer · Principal Data Engineer |
| Data Scientist (all levels) | Data Scientist · Senior Data Scientist · Lead Data Scientist · Staff Data Scientist · Principal Data Scientist |
| Engineering Manager / Leadership | Engineering Manager · Senior Engineering Manager · Director of Engineering · VP of Engineering · Head of Engineering |
| Project & Program Manager | Project Manager · Program Manager · Senior Project Manager · Senior Program Manager · Technical Program Manager · Technical Project Manager |
| Finance & Accounting | Financial Analyst · Senior Financial Analyst · Finance Business Partner · Finance Manager · FP&A Manager · Manager of Strategic Finance · Accountant · Senior Accountant · Staff Accountant · Controller |
| Sales (BDR/SDR/Reps/Mgrs) | Sales Development Representative · Sales Representative · Sales Engineer · Business Development Manager · Sales Director · Sales Manager · Territory Sales Manager · Senior Sales Engineer · Senior Business Development Manager |
| Marketing | Marketing Manager · Director of Marketing · Head of Marketing · Senior Marketing Specialist · Product Marketing Manager · Senior Product Marketing Manager · Senior Marketing Manager · Marketing Director |
| Solutions / Sales Engineering | Solutions Engineer · Solutions Architect · Senior Solutions Architect · Senior Solutions Engineer · Lead Solutions Engineer |
Report generated by SimpleApply, June 02, 2026. For questions or to request a custom cut of the data, contact [email protected].
