By Ringside Talent
November 12, 2018
What is good for the economy is not always the best thing for employers.
Click here to get a list of the top talent in your market.
We have been hearing from countless clients that the talent pool seems to be dwindling, and that once tried and true methods of finding talent like job postings are no longer yielding results. According to the Labor Department, “the number of job openings exceeds the number of unemployed workers for the first time in 17 years”. It’s no wonder companies are having a hard time finding talent.
According to The Washington Post: Unfilled jobs in the U.S. exceeded the number of unemployed Americans by more than one million as the summer came to a close, a sign it is increasingly difficult for employers to find workers.
Before March, job openings had never exceeded unemployed workers in more than 17 years of monthly records. Furthermore, the average time to fill vacant job positions reached a record high of 32.3 working days in September, according to an analysis of underlying data by Steven Davis, an economist at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
In some higher-skilled industries jobs were open for even longer. Vacancy durations exceeded 40 working days in the information, health services and financial services sectors, the analysis showed.
Difficulty filling high-skilled jobs is causing some businesses to adjust their strategies.
A large gap between job postings and job seekers could help push up wages because employers more frequently need to lure away workers who already have jobs. In October, average hourly earnings rose 3.1% from a year earlier, the largest annual raise for workers since the recession ended in 2009.
The Labor Department report showed the rate at which workers quit their jobs held at post-recession highs for the third straight month. That suggest Americans are confident enough in their job prospects to leave employment to find a better match. The rate at which workers were fired or laid off from their jobs in September was just above a record low set earlier this year.
“The average time to fill a vacant position has reached a record high of over 32 working days!” That is a huge loss to any company. That is why companies are more and more opting to use a recruiter to find the perfect candidate. Recruiters have huge databases and long standing relationships with happy, high performing talent that are currently employed and not actively seeking new employment. They are able to start sending over qualified, talented professionals typically within a week.
Source: The Washington Post, Eric Morath