Employment Equation

“The strongest pace of job growth we’ve seen since 1997” was the statement recently attributed to Paul Ashworth, the chief U.S. economist with Capitol Economics.  The U.S. Labor Department advised that employers added 257,000 new jobs in January, 2015 besting the forecast of 228,000.  Job growth estimates in November, 2014 were upwardly revised to 423,000, the most in 17 years.  December job growth estimates were increased to 329,000 up from the original estimate of 252,000.

There was a slight increase in average hourly earnings of $0.12 per hour in January, 2015 and that suggests the labor market is tightening.  What does all this mean for you and for us?  It may well mean that our job of finding the talent you need is going to get a bit more difficult, and it might mean that the talent we are able to locate will expect a bit more money in hourly wage or salary.  Predictions are that wage growth will continue into 2015, and that this is likely to show itself across all sectors.

You and we all have been here before.  When jobs are plentiful and labor is tight, the cost of new employees rises while the supply is obviously diminished.  When workers are more plentiful, the cost of employees holds steady or reduces.  We usually think of an expanding economy as being good for most of us, and that is our feeling with today’s news.

We’d rather participate in a growing economy and most of our client employers would prefer that as well.  If you are seeking a better job, give us a chance to help you with that search.  This is a great time to be seeking to improve your situation.  If you are seeking to add employees, this is also a great time since employees recognize this is a better job search market than they have seen for several years.

If you expect to need more employees, this is a good time to begin that search.  If you would like to confidentially explore the market for a new position, this is a good time to begin that effort, too.  We are ‘matchmakers’ and we are good at it.  We have had a lot of experience on both sides of this equation.

Let us hear from you.

Alan Campbell,  Account Manager