Cash bonuses are queen as employers grapple to hold onto talent. Per a recent report, 68% of HR leaders surveyed said they “increased the number of employees eligible to get a cash bonus”. Over 50% surveyed expected to “grant average merit increases of more than 5%”. On the flipside, more than half of those surveyed would forgo a 10-20% salary increase for better flexibility for both where and when they work.
To better support employees, Deloitte is investing more than $1 billion in compensation and benefits. A $500 work-from-home technology subsidy is included as well as a salary increase. That increase in pay is to be larger than the typical annual increase per a compensation market analysis the company conducted halfway through its annual compensation cycle. In addition, benefits such as a $1,000 well-being subsidy and 15 paid holidays in 2022 are included in the investment.
Job seekers and employees alike are feeling “newly empowered” in their jobs and in the job hunt per a recent report. Almost 3 in 4 U.S. respondents said they felt “they could make changes to their work-life balance” and 84% said they have “reassessed how work fits into their lives”. More than 50% of workers surveyed said they were looking for a new job because “they did not feel fairly rewarded for their work” while 60% surveyed were inspired by their peers to make a job switch even if they felt satisfied with their current jobs in Q3 and Q4 2021. Expectations that employees place upon employers have changed a bit as well – compensation and benefits are at the top but the option to get more training and professional development to stay ahead of today’s market are also desired more now than in previous years.
The quit rate in the U.S. hit a record high of 3% in November, per the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, with 4.5 million quits recorded. This marks the highest number recorded since the Department of Labor began tracking quits in December 2000. (September also had a quit rate of 3%, with 4.4 million employees quitting their jobs) Accommodation and food services, healthcare and social assistance, transportation, warehousing, and utilities were the industries with the highest increase in quits, per the BLS. The quit rate is high, however, workers are not exiting the job market, they are accepting other jobs.
As quit rates increase, the topic of flexibility is a top concern. When asked, 70% of HR manager respondents named flexibility as a reason for those turning in their notices to resign. In parallel, more than one-third of employee respondents stated they still wanted to work from home and 38% were fearful of getting infected while working in an office. As far as job satisfaction goes, more than 20% of employees were “unsatisfied with their current salary” and more than 25% were “unsatisfied with their pay increments and promotions”.
Seasonal jobs saw a decrease of 7.5%, with transportation and seasonal warehouse jobs showing a decline of 8.4% compared to the previous year. Challenger, Gray & Christmas predicted that those in retail would hire for 700K jobs during this holiday season, down from 736K last year. A 67% increase in seasonal job growth was seen for the transportation and warehouse sector in 2020, seasonal job openings decreased to 340,700 jobs in October and November 2021 from 372K the previous year. When looking at October and November, 551,400 retail jobs were added, which is down from 596K for 2020. The retail numbers in October and November 2021 were the lowest seen for the industry since 2016 when 508K jobs were added.
Per the December jobs report, the U.S. added 199,000 jobs in December. This, coupled with the ever-decreasing unemployment rate now at 3.9% (down from November’s 4.2%), signals a continuing hot job market for job seekers.
The U.S. added 807,000 nonfarm private-sector jobs in December with the leisure and hospitality sector marking the strongest growth in December adding 246K jobs. However, private-sector payrolls are still down almost 4 million jobs from pre-Covid levels.
Here are the jobs added in December by sector:
ADP lowered its estimate of jobs added in November to 505,000 from the initially reported 534,000.
Until next week,
Erin and Team BountyJobs