Talent Acquisition Briefs

At the outset of the pandemic, employees were the top priority of boards, second only to continued liquidity. That focus intensified during the social unrest following the death of George Floyd. Now, the SEC’s new disclosure rules on human capital management (HCM) could further reinforce the focus on workers — at least temporarily.

In the current economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, employers are laying off millions of workers and significantly cutting back on hiring new employees. Many businesses are no longer able to operate, or their operations have been limited, resulting in less demand for workers. The Conference Board®-Burning Glass® Help Wanted OnLine™ (HWOL) data series, collects millions of online job ads in real-time and classifies them by occupation, industry and location. This allows us to see which

Labor shortages are becoming one of the main barriers for sustaining a healthy US economy, especially in industries that hire many blue-collar and manual service workers. Is this a passing phase or a long-lasting problem?

It is not news that the US labor market is very tight. That is, with the unemployment rate near historic lows, employers are facing significant recruitment and retention difficulties. What is less known is that the labor market is tighter for blue-collar and manual services jobs than for the highly educated white-collar jobs. The exact opposite of prevailing trends in recent decades.

The Conference Board Help Wanted OnLine™ (HWOL) Index has been declining for much of 2019, indicating a slowdown in employment growth. While the HWOL index is certainly weakening, it is nowhere near recession territory. The current decline is about the same as the slowdown in 2015-2016, but much smaller than that of the Great Recession.