2017 was a banner year for hiring. But what will 2018 and beyond hold for all things job related?
The jobs climate has been, well, awesome lately. According to LinkedIn’s Workforce Report for 2017, hiring in the US was 10.4 percent higher in 2017 than in 2016. What’s even more impressive is that the year is also finishing up very strong. November 2017 hiring across the nation was 26 percent higher than in November 2016. The industries that had the biggest hiring increases for the month, as opposed to the year before, were financial services and insurance, oil and energy, and manufacturing and industrial at 27, 26 and 25 percent respectively. Furthermore, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) raw numbers for November were as follows: 228,000 new jobs added that includes 30,000 health care jobs, 46,000 business jobs, 31,000 manufacturing jobs. These numbers translate to an unemployment rate that keeps us at a 17-year low of 4.1 percent.
Pay and stay?
It’s no secret that pay hasn’t made huge strides in the past few years. While the latest BLS report showed that weekly paychecks increased by 3.1 percent over the last 12-months on average - the first time that reading has topped three percent in nearly seven years - much of that gain came from the fact that workers are working longer hours. But while we haven't seen big increases in our pay, we haven't been complaining that much about our stagnant wages. There are a couple factors that may be causing workers to not miss bigger year-over-year increases in wages. For one, today’s workers are seeking other benefits besides pay, like the choice to work from home, better health insurance, or more generous retirement programs. Also, inflation isn’t a big issue these days. Consumer prices rose just two percent over the past 12 months, so anything over a two percent raise to offset cost of living increases will be seen as a raise.
But while many people are currently satisfied with their pay, we are still migrating away from cities where there’s a scarcity of jobs to where the jobs are plentiful. Upon further examination of the LinkedIn Workforce Report for 2017, we find that: “Seattle, Denver, and Austin consistently topped our list of cities gaining the most people in 2017. Denver climbed from No. 3 in January to No. 1 in November, representing a 5 percent increase in arrivals and displacing Seattle from the top spot. We also saw Las Vegas move from No. 9 to No. 5 over the course of the year, representing a 37 percent increase in arrivals. Of cities losing the most workers, Hartford continues to see a decline: from No. 2 in cities losing the most people in January to No. 1 in November, Hartford’s outflows have increased 5 percent since the start of the year." Some of these cities have recognized that they are losing ground and are doing something about it which includes offering job training programs and incentivizing companies to stay. The LinkedIn report shows that: "Providence, which fell from No. 1 in net outflows in January to No. 2 in November, has seen a 19 percent decline in outflows, and Baltimore, which fell from No. 7 to No. 8 in the same period, has seen a 27 percent decline in outflows.”
Looking forward
While 2017 has been a great year for the job market, what will 2018 hold? Will it be just as good? Can it get better? Will it tank? And what about beyond 2018? What’s the best plan to have to get a good job in the next five years and beyond? What will continue to be the hot industries for hiring? And will robots finally take over most of our jobs?
Career experts are all over the map when it comes trends we will see in 2018. Here are a few from Dan Schawbel, a partner and research director at Future Workplace, an executive development firm dedicated to rethinking and reimagining the workplace:
“Companies will take diversity more seriously.
Employees are burned out from working longer hours with no additional compensation, while companies are posting record profits. Technology has expanded the workday and forced employees to spend more time during work for the same salary and without a bonus.
Artificial intelligence becomes embedded in the workplace. The topic with the biggest buzz in HR circles is AI because there is both excitement and fear around the topic as it relates to how we do our jobs. Almost every new device and service will contain AI in the next few years. (That doesn't mean robots will be taking over your job any time soon.)
Financial and mental wellness get prioritized. With 78 percent of Americans living paycheck to paycheck and student loan debt at over $1.4 trillion, workers are struggling and it's affecting their health. Workers are stressed out, burned out and it's affecting not only their productivity but their satisfaction on the job.”
While speculation about job trends is wide-ranging, the best bet to make in terms of which career sector leads the way in job growth is still, no shocker here, the healthcare sector. However, it’s not business as usual in the healthcare sector. In fact, it might just be the sector that sees the most change in terms of how their services are delivered. Consider the following from Mercer’s Healthcare Workforce 2025 report: “The healthcare industry is changing. Although growth in healthcare will account for nearly one in three new jobs created in the US by 2024, growth in the healthcare workforce will be uneven. New technologies, such as telemedicine, are changing how healthcare is delivered. New competition, such as retail health outlets, is changing where healthcare is delivered. These changes, combined with demographic trends and regulatory uncertainties, are likely to transform healthcare in the coming years."
The 2018 takeaway
So what's the bottom line for 2018? It's that pay probably won't change that much, the cities that have had high increases in jobs will continue on that path, and hopefully companies will continue to make efforts to embrace diversity and keep employee burnout in check. And while the healthcare sector remains very strong in terms of hiring, their service delivery, thanks to technology, will continue to evolve. That same thing could be said for most industries...while there are always some surprises on the jobs horizon, the one constant is change, and we must adapt to these changes if we want to continue to be successful with our careers in 2018 and beyond.
This story was originally published December 17, 2017 at 12:00 AM with the headline "2017 was a banner year for hiring. But what will 2018 and beyond hold for all things job related?."