Joe Coombs is Senior Analyst, Workforce Trends and Forecasting for the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). Joe tracks current trends and issues in the labor market including the economy's impact on hiring and recruiting, wages and compensation, retirement benefits and the aging of the work force. In addition to The Jobs Blog, he also writes monthly and bi-annual reports on the labor market using data culled by the research department. Contact him at Joseph.Coombs@shrm.org or on LinkedIn.
The number of HR manager positions will increase this year by 1,100 in California—the highest volume in the nation—and by 8.6 percent in Nevada, the largest percentage increase among the 50 states and Washington, D.C., according to a set of forecasts at Projections Central, a website with employment data compiled by state agencies.
Several large-scale corporate expansions in the St. Louis region are adding thousands of jobs to local payrolls, headlined by one of the world’s biggest aircraft manufacturers.
Boeing is expanding operations at its existing plant in St. Louis to manufacture components of the new 777X commercial airliner. The project will eventually bring 700 jobs to the area, and production began at the site in the fall of 2016.
If you are an HR professional, there is an excellent chance you have been told to warm up to "big data" as a means of performing your job. These large collections of information are increasingly used to reveal behaviors and societal trends, and they are heavily relied upon for recruiting tactics, measuring employee engagement and countless other business operations.
New research from the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) suggests that the U.S. labor market has cooled off a bit in 2016, but economic conditions and hiring rates remain quite favorable for job seekers.
Two recent reports make a strong case for the need to create more training opportunities for the unemployed and perhaps even for lower-skilled workers who are already in the labor force.
The New York City region’s $1.5 trillion economy continues to generate new jobs across several industries, due to its size and diversity. New programs have also been created recently to get more people back to work and to attract high-tech employment.
Job opportunities have increased steadily in most major sectors of the San Diego region’s economy, and that growth has quickly created tight conditions for employers that still want to add to their payrolls.
As Detroit continues its recovery from a high-profile bankruptcy, the city’s leaders have taken note of a number of positive trends, including steady job growth and increased real estate values.
The U.S. economy continues to add jobs, albeit at a slower rate in the past few months. Decreased demand is partially to blame and perhaps comes as no surprise, as some return to moderation was expected after the recent stretch of fast-paced job growth. Simply put, conditions have tightened as more people have found work and there are fewer openings in many employment sectors.
After enduring several years of declines in government spending, the Washington, D.C. region is once again benefiting from stability in the federal budget. But the area’s economy is also now less reliant on Capitol Hill, as evidenced by recent job gains in the private sector.
Most observers agree that job seekers from the Class of 2016 are facing better conditions than their peers from the past few years. Sustained labor market growth and a steadily expanding economy are chief among the reasons for this optimism, but the good news nonetheless comes with caveats, as detailed in a number of recent reports.
Job growth has been steady for quite some time in the Denver region, where the health care and aerospace industries have sizable presences. And even with recent declines in oil prices, the area’s energy sector still generates significant economic activity.
Thinking of moving to the big city to pursue a bigger paycheck? Or perhaps you’re dealing with employees who intend to do so? While it’s true that employers in major metropolitan areas tend to dole out higher wages, new research shows that increased spending power might not come along on the trip.
Food production and the automotive industry continue to strengthen the Cleveland region’s economy, and health care is expected to be a major driver for job growth in the near future.
From 2015 to 2025, the Cleveland area will generate 85,000 job openings in the health care industry, either through new positions or replacements.
More workers in 2016 have faith that they’re set up for a comfortable retirement, but many of them may not realize what it really takes to achieve the retirement lifestyle they’ve imagined, according to a recent survey.
The U.S. unemployment rate of 4.9 percent in January 2016—a level not seen in nearly eight years—has spawned a discussion in the media and among economists on whether we are getting closer to “full employment.”
There has perhaps never been a perfect match between the labor market’s demands and the collective skills of its job seekers. They both change over time, and when they don’t line up exactly, the result is that some people are out of work or underemployed.
All eyes are on Tampa’s downtown at the moment, where a development team is planning a $2 billion makeover of a 40-acre section of the city. It will encompass 6 million square feet of new commercial, residential and retail space, and among its anchor tenants will be a new home for the University of South Florida’s Morsani College of Medicine.
After recognizing that the Phoenix area’s fiscal health was too dependent on real estate growth – a nod to the boom and bust that occurred in the local housing market during the 2000s – business leaders started a series of efforts to diversify the region’s economic portfolio.
The Seattle metro region spans three counties in northwest Washington, and technology and aerospace are its dominant industries. In Seattle’s home of King County alone, there are nearly 500 companies and more than 45,000 employees that belong to the aerospace sector.
