05.02.2026
Searching for work has rarely demanded more effort. Yet for many women, that effort is yielding fewer returns.
New research from the charity Smart Works paints a stark picture of today’s job market. The Gendered Reality of Job Seeking: The Smart Works Index 2025 shows that women across the UK applying for more roles, receiving less feedback, and steadily losing confidence as a result.
The findings matter. Not just for jobseekers, but for employers, recruiters and business leaders trying to understand why talent pipelines feel tighter, why diversity goals are harder to reach, and why good people are being missed.
More applications. Less connection.
Based on the data from 4,651 women, the ‘Greater Manchester Focus’ edition shines a spotlight on the 743 local women who contributed, representing the voices of 1,120 unemployed women supported by Smart Works Greater Manchester in 2025.
According to the Index, women now submit an average of 43 job applications before reaching the interview that leads to employment. One in three apply for more than 50 roles. Many never speak to a human being along the way. Unsurprisingly, 64% report that the process reduces their confidence.
Victoria Cronquist, Head of Smart Works Greater Manchester said:
“What resonates most throughout this Index is not only the scale of the challenge, but the resilience of the women behind every statistic. They persist even as confidence wears thin. They adapt even as expectations shift. They continue to show up, even when recruitment practices shut them out too quickly and too often. But talent should not have to fight this hard to be recognised. The data is unequivocal: women are ready to work. The real question is whether hiring processes are ready to see them. Smart Works Greater Manchester exists to close that gap.”
Confidence, once eroded, is hard to rebuild. And confidence matters. It shapes how people present themselves, how persistently they apply, and whether they stay in the labour market at all.
Inequality hasn’t gone away. It’s just showing up differently.
The Index also identifies three defining trends shaping women’s job-seeking experiences in 2025:
1. Effort is rising, but opportunity is not
Women are applying widely and persistently, yet recruitment processes are increasingly automated, complex and unresponsive. Many women report receiving no feedback at all, while gaps linked to caring responsibilities, health or age continue to be penalised.
2. Confidence is being eroded by the job search process
Nearly two-thirds of women say trying to find work has left them feeling “less confident than usual” or “much less confident than usual”. Women describe a job search shaped by silence, unclear expectations and repeated rejection, steadily undermining confidence over time.
3. Existing inequalities continue to shape outcomes
Disabled women report some of the steepest declines in confidence during the application process. Women from ethnic minority backgrounds apply for more roles on average but experience lower job success outcomes. Parents, carers and women aged 50+ face longer job searches and greater barriers where flexibility and accessibility are limited.
These are not marginal effects. They are structural signals that hiring processes are filtering out capability long before potential is recognised.
As Smart Works Greater Manchester’s leadership notes, women are not disengaged from work. They are ready to contribute. The real question is whether recruitment systems are ready to see them.
What works when the system doesn’t
Despite a tightening labour market and rising long-term unemployment, Smart Works Greater Manchester achieved a 64% job success rate in 2025. Every single client reported that the charity’s support increased their chances of securing a job, underscoring the charity’s vital role in helping women overcome the barriers they face when entering the workforce.
Emma Pickering, Chair of Smart Works Greater Manchester, said:
“We are focused on reaching unemployed women most in need and making a meaningful difference in the communities where our support has the greatest impact. In Greater Manchester, 25% of the population live in the 10% most deprived areas in England, and 38% of the women we support come from these neighbourhoods. More than a quarter of our beneficiaries are young women under the age of 25. Early intervention at the start of a woman’s working life is critical, it helps tackle structural inequality and reduces the long‑term impact of unemployment. This is the work Smart Works Greater Manchester is committed to delivering every day.”
That support is practical and human. Interview coaching. Professional clothing. Confidence-building. Real conversations. It works because it restores what the modern job search often strips away.
The Index also underlines a bigger truth. For every woman supported by Smart Works, thousands more are navigating unemployment without tailored help, human contact or confidence-building interventions.
Why this matters for employers
For Morson Group, as the Greater Manchester Focus Index partner, supporting this edition is about more than sponsorship. It reflects our long-standing commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion, and to helping employers access the full potential of female talent.
Ged Mason, Executive Chairman of Morson Group, said:
“We work with a lot of employers who are focused on building a more diverse team and embedding inclusiveness in their recruitment practices and culture. We are supporting many of those companies towards those goals with employee value proposition development, clear and inclusive job descriptions, and equitable recruitment and selection processes. The Smart Works Unemployment Index provides a real-world overview of the real challenges faced by women in accessing work and career opportunities, with a solutions-based narrative detailing steps that employers and recruiters can take to break down barriers to employment and leverage female talent pools. We are delighted to continue Morson’s commitment to diversity and inclusion by sponsoring this report and sharing it with our clients.”
Many employers are already moving in this direction. Developing inclusive employee value propositions. Writing clearer, more accessible job descriptions. Building recruitment processes that assess capability rather than conformity.
The Smart Works Index gives those efforts context and urgency.
The bigger picture
The Smart Works Index 2025 launches in Greater Manchester on 6 February with the support of civic and business leaders, including VIP Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester. But its relevance extends far beyond one region or one event.
It asks uncomfortable questions of all of us involved in hiring.
If women are applying more and succeeding less, what are our processes really measuring?
If confidence is being lost at scale, what responsibility do employers carry?
And if talent is ready, but opportunity is not, where does the problem truly sit?
The answers matter. Because skills take skill to recognise. And in a labour market this tight, no organisation can afford to overlook capable people simply because the system wasn’t built to see them.
At Morson, we’re not just in the business of recruitment. We are committed to making a meaningful contribution that delivers real outcomes for individuals and communities. Find out more about ED&I or read about our sponsorship of the Smart Works Unemployment Index.
