2024 Workforce Insights Wrapped

Our favorite workforce genres were AI, RTO, and the sluggish labor market

2024 proved to be another eventful year in the labor market. To wrap it up, your favorite team of economists has compiled the most important topics we covered. Rest assured that these topics will continue to accompany us in 2025 as well!

Sluggish labor market: Workers are staying longer in their jobs despite their low satisfaction

Over the past 18 months, the U.S. labor market has experienced notable stagnation. Companies have been cautious about hiring and are instead resorting to lengthy hiring processes, which have become the norm, contributing to widespread dissatisfaction among job seekers. At the same time, employees are staying in their roles longer, leading to a steady decline in attrition rates across sectors, with the most pronounced drop observed in the tech industry. Our analysis reveals that the significant decline in attrition during 2024 cannot be fully explained by traditional factors such as salary levels, employee sentiment, job availability, or labor market tightness. Paradoxically, the Great Stay coincides with a marked decrease in employee sentiment: Employees are increasingly unhappy in their roles, yet they are not leaving their jobs. The decline in sentiment appears to be driven by macroeconomic pressures, including waning consumer confidence, rising unemployment, and layoffs. Healthcare workers are also among the most impacted, contributing to a growing mental health crisis in the sector. Despite this, the healthcare industry lags behind the national average in offering mental health benefits, exacerbating the challenges faced by its workforce.

Read about the other key trends here.

See you next year!

Zanele Munyikwa , Loujaina Abdelwahed, PhD & Lisa K. Simon and the whole Economics team Revelio Labs