Hiring Trends: Unstable Job Market Affects Talent Management
Posted by Alexandra Earnley on Fri, Jun 03, 2011 @ 12:05 PM
It seems, based upon results of a new Accenture survey that people are staying in their jobs, despite whether or not they like what they are doing. Only two out of every five professionals are actually satisfied with their careers, but 70 percent of those who are not happy are choosing to do nothing about it.
LaMae Allen DeJongh, a managing director of U.S. capital and diversity at Accenture, believes that the findings of the survey “are a testament to the uncertainty that exists among employees, given the market and uncertainty around what this new normal really means.” This new norm that they are talking about is not normal by any means. The instability has caused many employees to adapt the “grin and bear it” attitude towards their job.
With unemployment still hovering at 9 and 10 percent, there are not a lot of job opportunities materializing, causing many to just be thankful to have something that pays the bills. But regardless, as the article acknowledges, top talent is always in demand. “For high performers and really good talent, there are always job opportunities available. If there is low satisfaction, they’re probably going to jump.” 74 percent of workers would consider a new career if approached, yet so many are reluctant to look.
So what is the differentiator? Who is making the cut these days in this highly competitive market? The educated. According to an article in HRO Today, Michael Beygelman claims that more and more companies are looking to higher specialized workers, with a huge rise in the fields of accounting, IT, and engineering.
So it’s not all bad news for those on the job hunt. “The private sector added 200,000 jobs for the second month in a row following the March 2011 report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.” These additions surpassed forecaster expectations with the highest growing industries including healthcare, professional and business services, manufacturing, temporary, retail, and leisure and hospitality.
Beygelman warns that caution is still the name of the game. “With a growing population, the economy will need to add more than 300,000 jobs a month consistently to continue to decrease the unemployment rate. As 7.5 million jobs were lost during the recession, getting unemployment to prerecession levels will take years, even with gains similar to this month’s.” As per usual, there is always some bad news with the good.
But it is not just the U.S.’s unemployment rate that we need to worry about. Our job market is also heavily influenced by international business. Global events such as the unrest in the Middle East impacting oil prices and Japan’s devastating earthquake impeding the stock market have thus spurred a major downturn in consumer spending. Beygelman advises that, “Employers and job seekers need to pay much closer attention to what is happening domestically and internationally, to be better positioned to adapt to our ever changing economic and employment environment.”