Interest from international job seekers in U.S. employment opportunities has fallen to its lowest level in years, a trend that could exacerbate labor shortages and impact hiring strategies for American employers, according to new research from Indeed.
Foreign job seeker interest in U.S. positions, measured by clicks from overseas IP addresses, has declined steadily since peaking at 2.4% in August 2023. By March 2025, this figure had dropped to just 1.7%, creating potential challenges for industries heavily reliant on immigrant workers.
The downward trend coincides with increased anti-immigrant rhetoric during the 2024 presidential election and subsequent policy shifts in the early months of the new administration, researchers found.
This decline could have significant implications for U.S. employers, as foreign-born workers currently represent 19.8% of the American workforce, up from 16.7% in June 2020.
“If flagging foreign interest in U.S. jobs begins to translate into lower actual immigration, productivity and economic growth could suffer, labor shortages could become more pronounced, and inflation could rise, especially in sectors most reliant on workers from abroad,” the report stated.
Industries potentially facing the greatest impact include healthcare, where 26% of physicians and surgeons and 40% of home health aides are immigrants, and construction, where immigrants constitute approximately 30% of the workforce.
The decline appears to be hitting white-collar professions particularly hard. Architecture and STEM fields experienced the steepest drops in foreign interest, with architecture seeing a three percentage point decrease between March 2024 and March 2025.
Indeed’s research suggests that the influx of migrants to the U.S. — which reached over one million in 2023 — had previously helped stabilize an overheated post-pandemic labor market by relieving workforce shortages and moderating wage growth.
The U.S. trend mirrors a broader global pattern, with worldwide foreign job seeker interest falling sharply since August 2024 after years of steady growth. This global decline has nearly erased all gains made since the pandemic began.
While Australia, Canada and Germany have also experienced declining foreign interest, the U.S. began seeing this trend earlier than other countries, potentially giving American employers an early warning about changing labor market dynamics.
For HR professionals, these findings suggest a need to reevaluate recruitment strategies that have traditionally relied on international talent pools, particularly in sectors with specialized skill requirements or persistent labor shortages.
