When candidates apply, what they say to an AI recruiter, and why 371 of them job-hunted on Christmas Day.
Read the findings ↓Half your pipeline shows up after your recruiters have logged off. Response times that depend on office hours lose them.
19,443 assessments started between 3 and 4pm on Mondays. Invites go out Monday morning; candidates answer after lunch.
Shorter than a coffee break. And 60% start within an hour of being invited.
More than three times as many as the year before. For some, the best day to look for a job is the one nobody else is working.
That's 160 complete Harry Potter series, all seven books each. Candidates have a lot to say when you let them say it.
Plus 20,645 cities. Hiring stopped having borders a while ago.
Candidates treat an AI interview like a conversation, not a form. English and French speakers are the most polite.
They ask about the role and the team first. In Europe, only 15.6% ask about pay.
Up from 31% in 2022. If your process doesn't work on mobile, it doesn't work for most candidates.
Two more did it from a smartwatch. Candidates apply from wherever they are, sofa included.
The week of 2 March was the busiest of 2026. The three quietest weeks were all in August.
For two hours on 19 July, Europe stopped applying. Over the whole tournament, hiring dipped no more than any summer.
Talent doesn't need a diploma. And 31% of top performers had zero years of experience.
45% gave a perfect 10, and 97.6% left with a better view of the employer. A good test is employer branding.
Every number in this report comes from Maki's own hiring data. Here is what it covers, and what it doesn't.
Maki's European data warehouse: assessments, AI screenings and end-of-process surveys, 2021–2026.
Candidates located in Europe. Times are Paris time. A few figures add the US, and say so.
Every figure is an aggregate. Answers, comments and transcripts were counted by machine, never read.
Ratings come from optional questions, answered mostly by people who finish. No employer is named.