Welcome to the Career Economy!
If you read this newsletter regularly, you know I try to find the silver lining among the crap shoot (I mean, let’s be real here) that has been the labor economy for the last 18 months.
I’ll give it to you straight: if you’re a tired job seeker, you’re in good company, and this girl is right there in the trenches with you.
August’s job report revealed more of the nuanced dynamics of not only the U.S. labor market but the overall economy as a whole. There are familiar trends and potentially alarming data – unless you dig deeper.
New job creation has been falling steadily since its peak about two years ago, but the overall decline has still outperformed many projections from month to month, and more importantly, it was needed to get inflation under control.
The good news on that front is the Consumer Price Index went up only 0.2% in August, which suggests the inflationary pressures are easing and an interest rate cut could be coming. I’m really hoping for that trend because I need to refinance my mortgage sometime before I turn 72. 😅
So here’s the brass tax as I see it: 142k jobs were created in August, and July’s total was also adjusted down. That stinks; however, you can’t take that total at face value because it depends on where in the market those jobs are created.
During many months of higher gains, jobs that were created in F&B, hospitality, and the hourly workforce made up the lion’s share of new jobs, while technology and professional positions were going in the opposite direction with layoffs. Both of those conditions have cooled to the point that there was an uptick in job separations in the F&B and hospitality markets last month. Of note: overall separations have stayed flat for the past 60 – 90 days, so it’s nice to see that stability.
While the overall numbers seem bleak, the silver lining is that technology is on an upswing – it’s small. It is not going to be a feeding frenzy. The hiring tear is over, but the sector’s resilience and rebound are crucial, as it plays a pivotal role in setting trends that often ripple across the broader economy.
On the front lines over here, we had another great round of wins in August from interview processes that, for the most part, started in July. Help me congratulate the Directors, VPs, and leaders heading to new positions at AirBnB, Capital One, DynaTrace, Wawanesa, Tesla, Hostiplan, and two special appointments for executives starting newly created positions at Simmon University and Howard University.
Yay for wins! We need them just as much as you.
The other thing we’re celebrating is a commitment to entrepreneurship, which we’ve seen rising as the employment market has gotten more challenging. I love business, so it’s been amazing to watch so many of you take the leap to start or commit to growing a business that has untapped potential.
Food for thought: if you can’t find what you’re looking for, create it. 😉
Here are a few other tidbits on the labor market as we wrap up the summary this month: unemployment stayed steady, wages ticked up a teensy bit, and here comes the broken record…
The current job market requires a strategic shift in how professionals approach job searching.
What was once a six-week job search for a tech professional or executive has transformed into a six-month journey of consistent, methodical action. It’s a new normal. Yeah, it sucks, but you don’t have to fear it. Set realistic expectations, approach it with a proactive mindset, and you will land a great new role that’s an even better fit than the one you would have gotten in the hop-skip-and-jump that the fast and furious six-week search provided.
Or, you could just start that business you’ve been dreaming of… 🤔
As always, I’m here to support you. Whether it’s a sounding board for that next big idea you want to bring to market or an amped-up search strategy, we got you!
Your Friend and Coach,
Angie Callen, CERW, CPRW, CPCC
