The Conflagration in the Labor Market
According to the recent article The Hot Labor Market Has Almost Become A Crisis by author Josh Bersin, a hot labor market is bordering on spontaneous combustion. With unemployment numbers the lowest they’ve been since 1969, and a slowing GDP, a fundamental shift in labor may be happening. Elements from the article are highlighted and explored below.
Missing the Shift
All the high-level thinking working to stave off inflation has left many analysts scratching their heads around labor. “After four months of worries about a recession and a steady increase in interest rates, today the BLS reported that 528,000 jobs were created and the unemployment rate dropped to 3.5%. This is the lowest it has been since 1969, a year when I was in middle school. And at the same time more and more jobs are being created, the GDP itself is slowing. What does this mean? Well, economists keep getting it wrong – it’s actually quite simple. The economy is shifting from goods to services, with an ever-increasing need for people,” according to the article.
Robots Aren’t Taking Your Job
It’s easy to believe that any advancement in automation replaces human labor, but this is simply inaccurate. No equation calculates how much labor is eliminated based on automation. Machines, even software, need people. According to Breslin, “… we’ve automated many things in the business world, but technology never stops. The whole idea that a computer or AI system will ‘replace people’ is silly. As soon as you build it something else comes along, so if you don’t have people to monitor it, evolve it, and adapt it, the technology simply becomes less valuable.”
Why a Crisis?
Adding manufacturing capacity is one thing. Adding labor capacity is quite another. Breslin continues, “Why do I say this is a crisis? Because, quite simply, we cannot ‘manufacture more people’ in a flash. We can solve the global supply chain problem by building a factory, buying a ship, or scaling up a distribution center. But, people don’t work that way. We need to educate them, train them, and coach them to perform at work. And as all the data now shows, when you ‘push’ people too hard, they just quit, check out, or change careers.”
Asset Management
Companies across the spectrum are getting a hard lesson in labor relations. But Breslin identifies the key, “The big message for CEOs and CHROs, however, is that you have to think about your company differently. No longer can you just “recruit” your way out of this problem. We need what we call “systemic HR” strategies and totally integrated HR operating models that bring together the four R’s: Recruit, Retain, Reskill, and Redesign, all in one integrated way…Regardless of the economy’s direction, the only real solution is to treat people as an asset.”
Is your company doing all it can to recruit and retain top talent? Managing your personnel like prime company assets is key.
Trent Lyons is a Technical Recruitment Lead at Business Centric Technology. If you are interested in learning more about how to get the best IT talent in the Dallas metroplex, contact Trent, who specializes in recruiting IT talent in Dallas, Ft. Worth, and North Texas. If you are looking for a rewarding career, contact us today.