Happy Spring everyone. Flowers are blooming and our phones are ringing with new job orders this month. We’re excited about our increased call volume and hoping for a fantastic 2012. So, what do the new job order numbers tell us about the year ahead? A million dollar question indeed. Proactive as always, my team and I have been perusing local resource sites and the internet for information (speculation really) about 2012 hiring trends. This is what we find.
Locally we find a report provided by the N.H. Employment Security, Economic and Labor Market Information Bureau (big title) called: 2012 Local Area Unemployment Statistics Report. As reported, New Hampshire’s unemployment rates are holding steady at 5.2%–this a two year average. Wow…..5.2% unemployment….good news right! Hummmmmm
MSNBC.com is continually reporting on employee hiring and economic trends for 2012. We found an interesting article by John Scheon titled, Employers stretch their workers to the limit. Scheon raises concerns about the recent drop in the productivity of U.S. workers due to what he calls “stretched to the limit” and tired workers. In Shoen’s view, a tired U.S. worker is not able (nor willing) to keep up with current production levels with the “current” level of employees on the job. Scheon says that in order to increase output, companies will need to hire back some of the people they laid off during the recession. What do you think?
We like an article we found on Associated Press.com by Mark Lennihan in which he warns us that: It’s hard to find good workers, even in this economy. Why? Lennihan believes that even with our relatively high jobless rate—it’s still hard to find good workers because qualified workers with specialized training (specialized manufacturing jobs for instance) are always difficult to source and attract—no matter what the economy.
We agree. What is your experience?
In the area of employee compensation, it appears that some of the factors we mention here are driving a push (demand) by employees for what they consider long overdue pay raises. This according to Rusty Rueff with Glassdoor—a career and workplace trends resource site. Rueff believes employees are optimistic that a pay increase is in their future—especially after employees helped “tighten” the corporate belt by working longer hours and suffering benefit cost increases all the while foregoing pay raises. We’re not seeing a dramatic increase in pay yet?
With a 5% unemployment rate in NH…..an employee population exhausted and ready for not only a raise but time off ….an internal demand for more help (more employees) to assist with deadlines….external pressures due to an increase demand for products, goods and services….may these factors be the just the right combination for the “perfect” hiring storm for the summer of 2012?
Are we ready? Please give us your thoughts.
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