It's harder to land a bigger paycheck at a new job—here's what workers are negotiating for instead

Workers have been losing leverage in a challenging job market over the last year, but the slide could be hitting a rebound point, according to new data.

By the end of September, 57% of new hires said they were able to increase their pay when taking a new role (down from 58% in late June), according to a recent ZipRecruiter survey of more than 1,500 new U.S. hires who started their jobs in the last six months. Other indicators of workers' bargaining power, like being recruited into their role, negotiating their offer and receiving a signing bonus also fell slightly in the last quarter.

But the small dips could indicate that workers' struggles are reaching a plateau, says Julia Pollak, chief economist at ZipRecruiter. New hires have "steadily seen their leverage erode a bit as the pendulum swings back toward employers, but we're seeing that deterioration in sentiment and in leverage slow," she tells CNBC Make It.

Pollak says the relative stability comes at a time the Federal Reserve has started cutting interest rates, which could spur more hiring in technology, law and business. "It very much is possible that we have hit the bottom and that we may see the labor market stabilize, and at some point even turn around," she says.

Job growth has both slowed and narrowed in recent months, with nearly half of the labor market being responsible for all job growth development, Pollak says. Translation: Unless you work in health care, government, construction or leisure and hospitality, it's been a tougher market.

Overall, the share of workers who describe their recent job search as "poor" reached a record high of 10%.

And they're not as happy with their new roles as job-switchers just a year ago. As of mid-2024, 24% of recent hires said their new job was their dream job, a sharp fall from 42% of job-switchers who felt that way a year ago.

"They're accepting their jobs a little more reluctantly," Pollak says.

Perhaps as a result, a small but growing share, 12%, of workers say they're continuing to look for "the right job" even after getting hired to their current one, showing that people are keeping their options open for better opportunities in the near future.

In the absence of big raises, workers are gaining flexibility and lower stress

Though new hires aren't negotiating bigger paychecks, they're winning in one area: adding flexibility into their work and lives.

Some 45% of workers said they gained greater schedule flexibility in their new job. For hourly workers, that could mean having more control over their shifts, and for salaried workers, there's a correlation between having a flexible schedule and being able to work remotely, Pollak says.

Women and parents with young children are more likely to value schedule flexibility than men and workers without kids, and they're switching into new jobs with the benefit at higher rates.

Pollak says flexibility is a win-win for workers and employers and expects it to continue gaining ground as a sought-after benefit.

Many employers are still struggling to recruit and retain talent, Pollak says, "and so they still feel pressure to raise wages and to offer comprehensive and generous benefits."

Employers without big budgets "are trying to do whatever they can, and [offering] flexibility is one way to give employees something that they highly value, but that doesn't hurt the company's bottom line quite as much as outright pay increases."

Beyond flexibility, more workers are prioritizing taking a new job that has less stress than their previous gig.

When asked why they accepted their new offer, "it is less stressful" was the second-most common factor behind earning a higher salary and ahead of liking company culture, according to ZipRecruiter data.

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