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Hiring Increases 19% Over Last Year in March
LinkedIn’s April Workforce Report states that hiring was up 19.3% year over year in March. This was also 3.1% over February (seasonally adjusted). Cities such as Houston, Phoenix, Dallas/Ft. Worth, and Cleveland-Akron not only surpassed the national average but also traditionally strong cities such as New York, Seattle, and San Francisco.
U.S. Private Sector Adds Over 240K Jobs in March
“US private sector employment rose by 241,000 jobs in March from February amid a “rip-roaring” job market, according to the ADP National Employment Report. February’s gain was revised upwards to 246,000 from the initially reported 235,000.
“We saw impressive momentum in the first quarter of 2018 with more jobs added per month on average than in 2017,” said Ahu Yildirmaz, VP and co-head of the ADP Research Institute. “Midsized businesses added nearly half of all jobs this month, the best growth this segment has seen since the fall of 2014. The manufacturing industry also performed well, with its strongest increase in more than three years.””
U.S. Nonfarm Payrolls Add 103K Jobs, Less Than Expected
The Bureau of Labor Statistic nonfarm payrolls report states that the U.S. economy added 10kK jobs in March rather than the 193K that was expected. This rate of job creation was the slowest in the past 6 months – combined with the low 4.1% unemployment rate and a slight increase in wage growth, this signals that labor market continues to be tight.
“If one were to only focus on this single month, the March employment report is on the disappointing side,” said Mark Hamrick, senior economic analyst at Bankrate.com. “Broader context is appropriate, however. The job market is widely regarded to be close to full employment. So, hiring gains should be slowing at this point in the expansion.”
Cold Call Number 3 Maybe the Charm
A new study from Lever shows that recruiters have a better chance of a response after three tries. The first outreach gives a 50% response rate, the second at 84.7% and almost 100% after the third. This, of course, varies by job category – Engineers had a low 35% response rate, compared with designers at 59%.
Glassdoor Releases Top 25 Companies Currently Hiring
Glassdoor lists 25 companies that are ‘hiring like crazy’. The list runs the gamut, across a variety of industries and desired skills. Uber, Procter & Gamble, Amazon, and Glassdoor itself are a few examples of those included on the list.
Nashville and San Francisco Post Lowest Job Rates
“The Nashville-Davidson-Murfreesboro-Franklin metropolitan area in Tennessee posted the lowest unemployment rate among all large, US metropolitan areas in February at 2.7%, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics announced today. The San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward area in California followed at 2.9%.
The highest jobless rate among large metropolitan areas in February was posted by the Buffalo-Cheektowaga-Niagara Falls area in New York, at 6.4%.”
Candidates Familiar with the Company Stick Around Longer
A Glassdoor study finds that “the more job applicants know about a company and its job opening, the longer they stay onboard once hired.” On average, employees stay around 4 years, but that has been declining since 2014. A decrease in retention rates has a direct correlation to rehiring costs. Glassdoor’s Economic Research team calculated that to rehire/refill the six million job openings currently on the site would cost employers between $29.1 billion to $32.6 billion over the next four years.
Self-employed Workers are a Happy Bunch
Research by the University of Sheffield and the University of Exeter found that workers that are self-employed are happier than those that work for others. They are more engaged and enjoy the freedom of innovation more than traditional employees.
Managers in the U.S. Feel They Lack Training and Are Overwhelmed
A study by West Monroe Partners states that 59% of managers with one or two direct reports responded that they have had no management training and 41% of those overseeing 3-4 workers state the same. In addition, 44% of managers feel overwhelmed as they are too busy to give ‘adequate feedback and direction’ to their team members.
Diversity Continues to Boost Innovation
Per research in a recent Harvard Business Review, social policies matter just as much, or more than economic incentives. States that have liberal social policies (legalized gay marriage, legalized marijuana, etc) see an improvement in diversity and innovation.
HR Directors Both Love and Leave Their Career
Researchers in the Hiring Lab at Indeed released data around career switching. The role of HR director is both on the list of the 20 least likely to change fields while also having one of the highest probabilities of people leaving at a 43% switch rate.
Women in California Underrepresented in Key Industries
A report from the Center for the Advancement of Women at Mount Saint Mary’s University in Los Angeles finds that fewer women than men are enjoying professional benefits and success in STEM job categories – science, technology, engineering, and medicine. These are the state’s fastest-growing and highest-paying industries.
CFOs Not on Board with Job Hopping
A survey from Robert Half finds that while 64% of professionals view job hopping ever few years could be a positive, 44% of CFOs polled in a separate survey stated they were ‘not at all likely to hire a candidate with a history of job hopping because they want to avoid losing them in the future.’
CEO Confidence Continues to be on the Rise
The Conference Board released their findings of measuring CEO confidence, finding that global CEO confidence continues to climb. The fourth quarter of 2017 saw a level of 63 and the first quarter of 2018 saw a level of 65 in confidence measurement.
“CEO confidence improved further in the first quarter of 2018, following a rebound in late 2017,” said Lynn Franco, director of economic indicators at The Conference Board. “CEOs remain positive about short-term growth prospects in the US, and to a lesser degree, about prospects in other mature and emerging markets.”
Jobless Claim Average Rises
“The US four-week moving average of initial claims for unemployment insurance rose to 228,250 last week, up 3,000 from the previous week’s average, the US Department of Labor reported. The previous week’s average was revised up by 750.”
A Rise in Finance Hires Expected
The 2018 Global Business & Spending Outlook released by American Express and Thought Leadership Studio reports that senior financial executives across the globe predict economic growth that will, in turn, allow an increase in workforce. A whopping 93% of respondents predicted an increase in company headcount within the next year…but at a slower hiring pace. (this is up from 85% last year)
Pay Gap Direct Correlation to Fewer Women in Top Roles
Research from Korn Ferry finds that the pay gap between men and women in the U.S. is mostly due to the fact that fewer women than men are in higher-paying roles.
“This pay gap issue can be remedied if organizations address pay parity across the organization and continue to strive to increase the percentage of women in the best paying parts of the labor market, including the most senior roles and functions such as engineering and technical fields,” said Korn Ferry Senior Client Partner Maryam Morse.
McDonald’s Tripling College Tuition Benefit
McDonald’s ‘Archways to Opportunity’ education program will see $150 million over five years as well as a lowering of eligibility requirements – from nine months to 90 days and for those working at least 15 hours a week rather than 20.
“This will provide almost 400,000 U.S. restaurant employees with accessibility to the program,” says McDonald’s spokesperson Andrea Abate to CNBC Make It.
Robots Taking Over Jobs? Maybe, But Not the Ones You Might Expect
A report from the Overseas Development Institute finds that less developed countries might be hit harder than others regarding robots as a threat to taking over worker’s jobs.
“It has been thought that automation will not replace labor and export-intensive manufacturing in poorer countries because of the high cost of robots,” says Dirk Willem te Velde, one of the authors of the report. “Our research shows that this is overly optimistic. Currently, the cost of operating robots in furniture manufacturing is still higher than labor, but this will not be the case within 15 years.”
