Top Job Market News Stories This Week

It’s been a rollercoaster ride for the jobs market in recent months. From record job offers to record job resignations, it’s been hard to keep up with the unprecedented labor changes in the economy.

So to keep you up to speed, here’s a selection of some top job market news stories.

Jobs Growth Fails to Meet Economist Expectations

In November, the US added 210,000 jobs to its economy, less than half the 500,000 projected by economists. The unemployment rate fell to 4.2% as the construction and transportation sectors added new jobs. The job’s growth market has experienced a considerable drop following on from the 531,000 increase in October.

It’s feared that concerns over the emergence of the new Omicron variant of coronavirus will be responsible for a further dip in the rate of jobs growth in December, dampening hopes that the labor market was on track to make a full recovery from the start of the pandemic. Fears over inflation and increased energy costs are also thought to have been responsible for the dip.

The news comes as US President Joe Biden has failed to achieve a majority for his proposed Build Back Better spending plans, as part of a package of measures to rejuvenate the economy after the pandemic. A withdrawal of support by centrist Democrat Senator Joe Manchin has caused the Senate to be split 50:50 on the deal, prompting Goldman Sachs to lower their US economic growth forecast for 2022.

Apple Offers Big Bonuses as War on Talent in Tech Heats Up

Apple is reportedly offering bonuses up to $180,000 to senior staff in a bid to plug the talent they’ve been losing to tech rivals in recent months. Apple is understood to be especially concerned about social media giant Meta, who are recruiting thousands more employees to help build their new platform, the “Metaverse”.

The unprecedented growth in the stock price of tech firms in the past year has led to fierce competition to attract top talent across the sector, with many bigger players like Google, Microsoft and Amazon exploring new ways to bolster employee retention.

The receipt of a large stock bonus came as a pleasant surprise to many software engineers and developers, who had not been communicated the news in advance. Question is, will it be enough to prevent employee turnover?

How the Great Resignation is Reshaping the US Jobs Market

People have been resigning from their jobs in droves over the past few months. The record number of people leaving their jobs amounted to almost 3% of the workforce in October.

So what’s the effect on the jobs market? While some resignations relate to people taking an early retirement, most of the changes relate to workers reconfiguring their career goals.

Some people are taking advantage of high numbers of job openings to switch to a role that offers them higher pay and better job security. Others are spotting entrepreneurial opportunities, turning their backs on traditional permanent jobs in favor of being their own boss and dictating their own work hours. And for other groups, the pandemic has caused them to revaluate what they want from their careers, switching to jobs that offer them fewer hours per week and more flexible working opportunities.

The upshot for employers is there’s greater pressure to meet the career expectations of employees in order to encourage retention: employers can either take advantage, or fall victim to the great resignation. This is likely to take the form of more flexible work arrangements, such as increased opportunities to work from home and reduce time commitments where this fits in with personal preferences.