The latest numbers, released last Friday from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), show that wage growth continues to be outpaced by inflation. While September’s 0.1% increase in average hourly earnings put the 12-month wage gain at 3%, growth in the Consumer Price Index is running at 3.4%. Additionally, the BLS reported fewer jobs were added than anticipated, leaving many Americans feeling the pressure of rising costs without ample opportunities to increase their wages.
With that in mind, let’s look at the latest angles in covering the labor market.
Job hugging
While job-hoppers often received large salary bumps in the few years following the pandemic, that isn’t the case today. Rather the slowing job market has made it so that job-hoppers are seeing much smaller pay raises. In addition, layoff notices have become so commonplace that many workers are unsure if they will be able to find a better opportunity to advance their career, let alone their wages.
Therefore, instead of job-hopping, employees are job-hugging. This means that even if a worker no longer enjoys their role or would like to find another job, they are staying put because it seems like the safest option at a time of economic uncertainty. As a Forbes reporter put it: Employees are “holding on to their jobs for dear life, not because they’re thriving, but because they’re unsure of what’s next.”
This creates a false sense of stability for employers, who may feel less pressured to increase wages when their best talent isn’t searching for other opportunities. However, employers shouldn’t assume their employees are staying because they want to, as job-hugging employees may, consciously or not, disengage with their work. This ”stability paradox” may actually mask sliding productivity from workers and harm both employees and businesses in the long term.
Downplaying to job hop
A recent report found that employees who are actively looking for new jobs are debating whether or not to actually put their best foot forward on their resumes. While it is usually assumed that candidates want to highlight their experience and accomplishments, 57% of survey respondents to Monster’s Overqualification Report stated they would “remove experience from their resume if it doubled their chances of landing a job.” The report showed that 21% of the respondents had been told, while another 19% suspected, that they were rejected for positions for being overqualified.
Employers may be concerned about putting effort into onboarding a new employee just to have them leave for a better opportunity a few months later, or that these employees will get bored with the tasks assigned to them. It is also possible that a hiring manager may assume that more experienced candidates will have higher salary expectations that don’t fit the budget. Despite this, it’s important to remember that not everyone changing jobs is necessarily looking to move up in their careers. Rather, some may be looking to lessen their responsibilities, have a job with a better work-life balance, make a career change, or have a plethora of other personal reasons for willingly applying to jobs that they are seemingly “overqualified” for.
When covering the labor market, it is crucial to look beyond the headline numbers and at the actual people they are representing, as those people may tell you a much more interesting and nuanced story than any graph will.
