My Take on Talent: The Magic Number 9
Becky Frankiewicz
Chief Commercial Officer, President North America at ManpowerGroup Inc.
The labor market hit another milestone – after 9 years of month over month job growth we’ve seen:
- Unemployment fall from 9.6% to 3.7%
- The lowest unemployment rate since 1969
- 109 consecutive months of job growth
The rain has tapered off after a cloudy sky in job growth in September. The October report reflected the labor market’s resilience: wages ticked back up to 3% and hundreds of thousands of people entered the labor force demonstrating the highest workforce participation since 2013. Food services and drinking places added 48,000 jobs as consumers – the backbone of our economy – dine out and keep spending and retailers kicked off Black Friday sales even earlier.
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In this tight labor market with 7M job openings in the U.S., keeping retail operations fully stocked to meet consumer demand is top of mind for retailers. We’re seeing a growing trend of employers implementing new strategies and tools such as on-demand staffing platforms and collaborative hiring where multiple employers share a skilled talent pool.
Across all industries, the reality is skilled talent is hard to come by and a multi-generational workforce is demanding more from their employers. Our advice to clients to attract, develop and retain the best talent - understand what workers want, provide flexibility, career paths and help workers upskill for jobs of tomorrow.