In a statement this past September during the Corps Team Labor Day Survey Debrief, Corps Team CEO, Allison O’Kelly talked about the impending labor shortage. That we were entering a jobseekers market.
Last month, the unemployment rate was reported to be at 5% (at the end of the recession in 2009, it was as high as 10%). And just last week, the Department of Labor announced that initial claims for unemployment insurance dropped yet another 6,000. Putting us at 247,000, far below the 500,000+ numbers seen in 2009, and surpassing the record (of 58 weeks) set back in 1973 for the most consecutive weeks with initial claims below 300,000. Note: the first of the millennials weren’t born until 1978.
This year, candidates are increasingly more difficult to find – they aren’t on the market, they accept jobs and then later decline, and there are huge counteroffers by current employers. These 40+ year unemployment lows have provided the data to justify what we are seeing in the market.
In a recent report, ADP found employers are offering higher wages. On average, wages grew, year over year, from 4.1% in the last quarter in 2015 to 4.6% in the first quarter in 2016 – and those in the finance and real estate industry saw a growth from 4.3% to 5.3% respectively.
But higher pay is not the only way employers can compete in this tight labor market (be it in recruiting or retaining talent). In addition, as our Labor Day survey showed, top talent is also looking better work-life fit (flexibility/paid leave), opportunities for growth (including more training), and benefits such as student loan reimbursement.
Finally, companies cannot afford to overlook hiring practices when looking to attract top talent. We offer some tips on recruiting and hiring in a candidate’s market here that include the importance of mobile friendly applications, and shortening of the hiring process.
