A Widening Skills Gap Looms for Workers
More than half of respondents to a recent poll stated they’re concerned about their future status as an employee due to a skills gap. If their current employer offered skills training, 45% of workers would stick around longer. When asked which soft and hard skills were most needed, workers listed technology, computer and occupation-specific training (credentials and licenses) for hard skills and managerial leadership, communication, problem-solving and critical thinking were tops for soft skills.
Higher Base Salaries Over Signing Bonuses
In 2021, 50% of employers are offering signing bonuses, but only 20% plan to continue to do so by the end of the year. Instead, 62% of organizations responding stated that an increase in base salaries will be the focus over the next six months to attract both salaried and hourly employees.
Clarity and Growth Opportunities for the Win
Almost half (47%) of survey respondents stated that roles that provided clarity and growth opportunities were on the top of their list when considering a job change. 54% of respondents were actively looking to change jobs, and 43% stated their careers had “either stalled or slowed to a crawl” since the beginning of 2020. This seems to have impacted younger respondents more, listing such things as ack of mentorship and lack of clarity around career paths.
Large Companies Making Big Hiring Moves
Amazon has reported the company is hiring for more than 40,000 corporate and tech roles across more than 220 location in the U.S. This is in addition to 10K+ of hourly role within operations. Since the pandemic started, Amazon has hired over 450,000 people and has received more than 30 million job applications since 2020 (double the amount from 2019).
Walmart is planning to hire 20,000 new associates across 250+ of the company’s Walmart and Sam’s Club distribution centers, fulfillment centers, and transportation offices. Some open roles include order fillers, lift drivers, freight handlers, technicians, and management positions – roles are permanent and encompass both full and part-time opportunities.
Another 9,000 new jobs across the U.S. will be created by Fidelity Investments. Of those, 44% will be client-facing and 9% will be in tech.
Percentage of Independent Workers Sees Strong Growth
In 2021, the number of independent workers increased by 34% to 5.1 million spurred on by the economic recovery and better management of the pandemic. The increase comes after a 7% decrease in independent workers seen in 2020. The percentage of full-time independent workers increased by 25% while part-time grew by 39%. Independent workers that work off and on (defined as regularly, but without set hours per week) increased by 51%.
Employees Voluntarily Leaving Their Jobs More in 2021
On average, employees voluntarily left their jobs 20% more in 2021 than in 2020. In 2020, employees voluntarily left their jobs an average of 9.6% less than in 2019. When looking at service workers in 2021, they were 44% more likely to voluntarily leave their jobs than in 2019.
Until next week,
Erin and the BountyJobs Crew
