Good News for Workers and Employers

Marcianne Kuethen

March 16, 2015

There’s always something new happening in the hiring space! I’ve been searching the headlines lately to find any valuable information to share. Feel free to skim the summaries below to see if one jumps out at you.

Finally, Good News for Workers at the Bottom Bloomberg (02/12/15) Peter Coy–The U.S. economic expansion finally is benefiting workers on the bottom of the ladder, with the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reporting a 6% increase in employment of people without a high school diploma in January on a year-to-year basis, an 18% jump in employment of black teens, and a 20% surge in employment of the disabled. In addition, average hourly earnings climbed 3.4% in the leisure and hospitality sector, compared with an overall labor force gain of 2.2%.

For lower wage earners, the good news is that a tightening market causes wage growth for jobs on the lower end of the scale. And the good news for employers is that the labor force grew by an estimated 700,000 from December to January after taking into account an annual revision in the size of the U.S. population. This should ease employers’ fears that bidding wars for talent will occur that cause an inflationary spiral in wages. Read more.

Longer Hiring Timelines Signal Tightening U.S. Labor Market Bloomberg (01/26/15) Nina Glinski–U.S. employers are taking longer to fill job openings, with 57% of positions unfilled 30 days after being posted in the three months through October, up 0.8 percentage point from the same period in 2013, according to a report by Indeed and the Centre for Economics and Business Research. The highest rates of unfilled jobs after at least three months were in the hospitality and manufacturing industries, and it took longer to fill such senior roles as retail sales managers and computer software engineers than lower-skilled positions.

“When it takes longer for employers to fill jobs it should put pressure on wages to rise in order to attract quality candidates faster,” says Paul D’Arcy, senior vice president of Indeed. “If employers are unwilling to offer higher wages, this could in part explain longer vacancy times.” Read more.

Study Reveals Nearly Half of Millennials Intend to Pursue New Jobs in 2015 PR Newswire (02/10/15)–Forty-three percent of Millennials plan to actively look for a new job in 2015, according to Aon Hewitt, because what they value in an organization is different from the priorities of their current workplace. What’s important to Millennials–relationships, work and home balance, employee recognition, loyalty, and respect–doesn’t connect with what they believe their employers value–organizational matters, including teamwork, profit, and customer satisfaction. Read more.

IT Executives Expect a Tough Hiring Environment in 2015
TechRepublic (02/04/15) Erin Carson–Information technology executives are predicting a challenging hiring environment this year, according to a new CompTIA report. Core IT jobs rose 2.4% last year, and unemployment is below the national average. Meanwhile, businesses are consuming more technology, and demand for IT workers is on the rise. Forty-three percent of the 650 IT executives surveyed reported that they are understaffed; about two-thirds expect a challenging hiring environment in 2015, although this likely will vary by city and region. Read more.

Private-Company Optimism the Highest in Nearly a Decade, Despite Hiring Challenges that Threaten Growth PR Newswire (02/03/15)–Three-fifths of private companies in the U.S. will add full-time equivalent employees this year, according to PwC U.S.’s Private Company Trendsetter Barometer. Even though the survey shows the most optimistic view on the U.S. economy since 2006, net hiring is shrinking because employers are having trouble finding qualified hires. One-third said they would have hired more people last year if the job candidates had been better.

Technology and engineering professionals are most in demand. Blue collar workers are less sought after, with many of them having been out of the workforce since the recession and needing new skills to reenter it now. Read more.

Why It’s So Hard to Fill Sales Jobs Wall Street Journal (02/03/15) Lauren Weber–Companies that sell technology and other services to corporate customers are struggling to fill sales positions even as the economy continues to gain strength. A Harvard Business School report found that technical sales and sales-management jobs are the hardest to fill, with an average of 41 days spent trying to hire for these positions over a 12-month period through September 2014, compared with 33 days for all jobs. Young people are hesitant to enter the field because they think it’s too risky and competitive. To attract candidates, companies increased base pay 11.7% between 2010 and 2014 while the variable amount has remained steady. Read more.

Hiring and hanging onto good talent is getting trickier, isn’t it? We’re here to partner with you, so call us at (714) 993-1900 or contact us to start working on your next position. Have a productive week!

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