Beneath steady headline job growth, a harsher reality is emerging for corporate America: the white-collar job market is tightening fast, Quartz reports.

While the U.S. added more than 130,000 jobs last month, most gains came from healthcare and related services.

Strip those out, and many white-collar sectors show stagnation — or outright decline.

Financial services shed 22,000 jobs, federal employment fell by 34,000, and other professional categories barely budged.

At the same time, job openings in professional and business services have dropped to near decade lows, excluding the depths of 2020.

There are now roughly 1.6 openings per 100 employees in the sector — and hiring rates have slipped to levels last seen during the 2008 financial crisis.

The average job search now stretches to six months.

Desperation is surfacing in new ways.

Some white-collar job seekers are paying recruiters thousands of dollars a month to manage their LinkedIn profiles and apply for roles — a practice known as “reverse recruiting” that would be unthinkable in a boom market.

Wage growth is also cooling.

The Employment Cost Index rose 3.3% year over year in the fourth quarter of 2025 — the slowest pace since early 2021 and only slightly above inflation.

Meanwhile, companies across industries are raising prices, squeezing purchasing power further.

Taken together, the data paints a stark picture: while the broader economy hasn’t officially entered a recession, for many white-collar workers, it may already feel like one.