More than 10,463 companies advertise 77,459 Consultant jobs on SimplyHired and its partner sites each year. After analyzing job postings and salary information from these companies, as well as direct job seeker feedback, we’ve compiled a list of insights to show you how to attract and hire your next Consultant most efficiently.

In the past quarter, we’ve seen 17,321 job posts from 4,320 employers in the United States. This is a decrease of 9.5% compared to the previous quarter. On average, there are 74 Consultant job seekers for every active Consultant job, which shows that it is a job seeker's market.

In the past quarter, Customer Service Representative, Sales Representative, Administrative Assistant, Receptionist, Project Manager, Call Center Representative, Delivery Driver, Retail Sales Associate, Consultant, and Data Analyst seem to be the most sought after jobs amongst the Consultant candidates in the United States. This differs from the last six quarters, where the most popular titles were: Customer Service Representative, Administrative Assistant, Sales Representative, Project Manager, Receptionist, Data Analyst, Business Analyst, Consultant, Analyst, and Account Manager. If you use one of these currently popular titles in the job description, you'll likely be able to attract a lot more candidates to apply.

For the Consultant candidates who are actively applying to jobs in this same period, we see that 5.6% of the active Consultant candidates have less than 3 years of experience, 8.5% have between 3-5 years of experience, 18.8% have 6-10 years of experience, and 67.1% have over 10 years of experience. The average years of experience has shifted from an estimated 12.4 years to 13.0 years. If you're posting a job in today's market, expect candidates with about the same experience level to apply to your job compared to the last 2 quarters.

In the previous quarter, the most popular skills that employers are looking for include communication skills, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Office, analysis skills, customer service, sales, Microsoft Powerpoint, project management, sql, and oracle. Demand for software deployment, cash handling, Spanish, English, product lifecycle management, budgeting, retail sales, public speaking, multilingualism, and computer literacy has significantly increased. If you are looking for a Consultant with a similar skill set, be sure to follow industry best practices in skill requirements.

Job posts with salary information received about 2.4 as many applies as those without it. In the past quarter, less than 18.8% of the job posts displayed salary information. By adding salary information to your job posting, you could potentially increase the number of applicants by approximately 140.0%.

• Perform market analysis
• Advise companies about improving their businesses, using expertise in several areas such as financials, operations, human resources, marketing, quality management, and organizational behavior
• Interview executives and other employees
• Research competitors
• Present findings and recommendations to corporate clients

When reaching out to candidates, it’s best to understand where to look. We’ve identified hiring trends in states as well as companies regularly hiring for Consultant positions. This should provide a good place to start looking for qualified candidates. According to our data in the last quarter: California, Texas, Florida, New York, and Massachusetts are the states that have the highest demand for Consultants. California, Texas, Florida, New York, and Massachusetts are where most job seekers are searching for Consultant jobs. If we look at the Consultant to job ratio, Minnesota, Vermont, New Hampshire, New Mexico, and South Dakota have the lowest number of Consultant applicants per job. West Virginia, Hawaii, Nevada, Wyoming, and South Carolina have the most active Consultant job seekers per job.

While actively recruiting candidates for your role, you should also post your job to SimplyHired. By posting for free and paying only for the qualified applicants you want, your post will automatically go to a network of job boards to reach millions of qualified candidates. With SimplyHired, it doesn’t end with the post. You can track your applicants throughout the hiring process with our simple and easy to use Applicant Tracking System (ATS).

In the last quarter, we estimate there are 1,142,527 job seekers interested in Consultant opportunities in the United States. That’s a 17.4% increase compared to the previous quarter with 1,097,872 active job seekers. Around 5.6% of the active Consultant candidates have less than 3 years of experience, over 8.5% have between 3-5 years of experience, 18.8% have 6-10 years of experience, and 67.1% have over 10 years of experience. The average experience level of the available Consultant candidates is 13.0 years. Active candidates in the Consultant profession most commonly have bachelor's degrees, followed by master's degrees, high school diplomas, and associate's degrees. When setting education requirements for your position, aligning with the industry standard makes it easier to find potential candidates. Application rates indicate that Consultant candidates are likely experiencing a market in which applicants have less negotiating power. From an employer perspective, you'll have a greater selection of candidates to choose from and may want to invest in automated screening tools.

After analyzing post-interview data from Consultant candidates in the last 6 months, we see more than 31.7% of the candidates self-reported being hired within 1 to 2 days. Around 78.6% of the candidates for this job reported being hired within 2 weeks. If your process takes longer than 2 weeks in the recent market, you'll likely lose these candidates to other employers. Most of the Consultant candidates are expecting a on-site interview, phone call/screening, background check, and group interview. Most employers do not require a problem solving exercises or presentation. If you are trying to hire your next Consultant quickly, consider simplifying and streamlining the hiring process. As for the interview experience, more than 68.9% of the candidates had a good or great interview experience, and more than 34% of the candidates thought that the interview leaned more towards easy.

• What is consulting?
• Why do people hire a third-party consultant instead of using in-house resources?
• How do you add value to the organization where you did your internship?
• How would you approach a project or organization if they had no needs or issues at this time?
• What is your typical day like being a consultant?

The average Consultant salary offered by employers increased for 2 out of 6 consecutive quarters in the United States. In the last quarter, we see a decrease of 4% from $83,486.44 to $80,293.89 compared to the quarter before, which is the biggest decrease in the past 6 quarters. For Consultant positions, the most common benefits job seekers reported being offered by employers include: healthcare insurance by 39.2%, paid time off by 33.5%, dental insurance by 33.0%, vision insurance by 30.3%, a 401k plan by 29.8%, discounts by 16.5%, and stock options/grants by 7.4%. While still relatively rare, more and more employers now offer flexibility benefits, including mostly remote, sabbaticals, location variety, somewhat remote, fully remote, flexible working hours, paternity leave, and maternity leave, to attract and retain Consultant candidates to their organization.

According to self-reported job seeker feedback, 25.9% of the employers conducted a background check, and 7.6% of the employers conducted a drug test prior to the hiring of their Consultant candidates.