Layoffs low as companies hoard labor

Welcome back to the Recruitonomics Newsletter! This week, the trend of labor hoarding took center stage as initial jobless claims came in low. Read on for more on the topic and for information about labor force participation rates by age cohort.?

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This Week on Recruitonomics:?

Unemployment Claims Fall Back to Earth

Initial jobless claims – a proxy for layoffs – fell last week. After a slight increase in the summer, these filings of unemployment insurance have fallen back down to earth and are nearing pre-COVID levels. For the week ending October 15, a total of 214,000 claims were filed, down 12,000 from the week before. Despite the small bump between April and August, recent declines back to 2019 levels speaks to the still-tight labor market. Recently jobless workers can easily and quickly find new opportunities, with job openings continuing to far outnumber unemployed people.?

Read the full article here .

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Recruitment Challenges Encourage Labor Hoarding

The rocky recruitment landscape of the past two years has prompted employers to hold onto their workers despite the economic uncertainty – in other words, to hoard labor. So far, despite high inflation and the mounting possibility of a recession, layoffs have not meaningfully increased. In fact, labor demand remains historically strong and recruitment costs are elevated – indicating competition is still steep. The memory of the latest post-recession restructuring is still very fresh and recruiters are willing to accept the short-term costs of a bloated workforce. The investment is worth avoiding another painful period of rebuilding at the next turn of the business cycle.?

Read the full article here .

What does this mean for recruiters??

Both low initial jobless claims and the labor hoarding trend show that the labor market remains tight – and companies are taking notice. Unfortunately, for the foreseeable future, tight recruitment competition will persist as the name of the game. This overheated market will eventually cool – but while companies hoard labor, the hard-to-navigate recruiting landscape will remain rocky.?

Are Workers Returning? Depends on Their Age

The labor force participation rate recovery has been uneven across the four main age groups. Workers and job seekers aged 16-19 have returned completely to the workforce, which is great news for leisure and hospitality employers. Two age cohorts, 20-24 and 55 and up, have participation rates far below their February 2020. The pandemic tempted some older workers to retire early, but some are returning to the workforce with the current cost-of-living challenges. Prime-aged workers, the largest cohort, are just a hair away from a full participation rebound.?

Read the full article here .

What does this mean for recruiters?

During a labor shortage, recruiters need to expand their reach. Today, fewer people are participating in the labor market, especially those 20-25 and 55 and up. Distributing job ads widely is one of the easiest ways to find candidates wherever they are online, and get your company’s name in front of the right job seeker.?

Recruiting Tips:?

Effective recruitment depends on the dynamism of job ad spend – but manually shifting job ad bids constantly is an inefficient solution. Instead, programmatic technology allows for bids to contract and expand based on changing market conditions – which, as we know, are in constant flux. This ability to respond dynamically leads to more effective results.

But don’t fear – this flexible spend does not mean a flexible budget. Programmatic job advertising will follow a pre-set budget and spread it to maximize the efficiency. What’s better than getting better results for the same amount??

For more facts about programmatic advertising, check out the Appcast Blog: 20 Myths about Programmatic Job Advertising !

Recently on Recruitonomics:

September was a bad month for inflation. The headline measure came in hot at 8.2%, but the really worrisome trend was in increases in core and services prices. Core inflation – which strips out volatile food and energy fluctuations – held steady at a very elevated level. Goods price increases continued to slow in September as supply shocks and energy prices stabilized. However, the services component was up 7.4% year-over-year – uncomfortably high for an economy based on services-producing activity. Despite inflation seeping into the broader economy, consumers still have confidence that price increases will slow in the medium-term. Median three-year ahead inflation expectations remained steady at 2.91% in September – good news for the Federal Reserve.?

Read the full article here .

The accommodation and food services sector has had a difficult past two years. The pandemic rocked the industry, decimating demand and leaving millions of workers without a job. During the recession recovery, employers faced labor shortages and historically high turnover rates. Lately though, the quits rate has been trending downwards, which may speak to softening conditions. In the larger leisure and hospitality sector, wage growth has been slowing – perhaps a sign of cooling across the labor market. The sector is able to absorb workers when demand is low in other sectors.

Read the full article here .?

What Recruitonomics is Reading:

Women leaders have been quitting and switching jobs at a higher rate than their male counterparts in 2022 – a phenomenon that a new paper has dubbed “The Great Breakup”.? To avoid being on the wrong end of the breakup, employers must understand why women are demanding more of their companies:

“Women leaders are just as ambitious as men, but at many companies, they face headwinds that signal it will be harder to advance. They’re more likely to experience belittling microaggressions, such as having their judgment questioned or being mistaken for someone more junior. They’re doing more to support employee well-being and foster inclusion, but this critical work is spreading them thin and going mostly unrewarded. And finally, it’s increasingly important to women leaders that they work for companies that prioritize flexibility, employee well-being, and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI),” finds a new edition of “Women in the Workplace” from McKinsey, in partnership with LeanIn.org.?

?More Data & Insights:

? Resilient Labor Market Despite Three Shifts

? A Job-Full Recession??

? Programmatic Recruitment Technology 101 ?

Thank you for reading! Stay tuned for next week's Recruitonomics Newsletter and check out Recruitonomics.com for more data-driven insights.