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It's the most competitive job market in recent history. A true testament to the height of the bull market, it's a terrible time to be adding new roles or backfilling for existing ones. Employers are squeezed. While most aspects of this market are expectations for compensation and benefits pushed to their extremes, there are also some clear outlying factors we have not seen before.
According to a recent McKinsey & Company survey, there are three major conditions that make this job market especially challenging for employers:
- Employees are leaving their jobs in record numbers: November 2021 followed by December 2021 set records
- There are more job opportunities than new hires by almost 2x
- 44% of employees who voluntarily left their jobs said they will not return to traditional employment for at least the next 6 months
If hiring and retention feels extra challenging right now, you don't need to feel like you are failing as an organization. It's not just you, the market has changed. How you react (and the speed at which you react) will set up success for the next few months and beyond, as the market continues to change unpredictably. even any unpredictable market changes.
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