Job hunting is now more difficult than expected for most job seekers amid economic uncertainty, according to Aerotek’s fall 2023 job-seeker survey. Of those surveyed, more than 70% of job seekers said they felt they needed to exert more than an average amount of effort to find a job, and 67.7% felt their current job search was more difficult than their last one.

Based on their experience over the last three months, 53.6% of job seekers said they thought employers had slowed down the hiring process. Just 13.5% thought the hiring process was faster, while 32.9% thought it was what they expected.

Despite the difficulty in changing jobs, pay is still the most important motivator among job seekers, cited by 30%. In addition, more than 74% of job seekers said their financial situation was the same or worse compared to this time in 2022. Aerotek noted the number was down slightly from its summer job-seeker survey when 77.3% of job seekers reported the same or worse financial situation.

Meanwhile, more than 55% of respondents said the economy and job market was the most significant barrier or challenge they were facing in their job search.

Aerotek surveyed more than 1,500 job seekers across diverse industries for the report.