Employment Trends – Croixstone

On the Radio with Croixstone

“The power of radio is not that it speaks to millions, but that it speaks intimately and privately to each one of those millions.”

– Hallie Flanagan (American Theatrical Producer, Director, Playwright & Author)

Croixstone’s CEO and co-founder, Patti Weber, and Managing Partner and co-founder, Mark Weber, were featured guests this past weekend on The Francene Marie Show that airs on 6 top-rated FM and AM radio stations in the Charlotte, NC market.

Francene Marie Morris serves as Public Affairs Director as well as Host and Producer of The Francene Marie Show that airs on radio stations in the Charlotte market owned by Beasley Media Group. The lively radio interview with Croixstone’s leaders featured insights and perspectives on the labor market, employment trends, and job search strategies.

Listen to the interview here.

Consulting Industry Trends

So what is the big picture in consulting?

The Croixstone Consulting team dedicated some time last week to dig into the latest research to provide some fresh perspectives in answering this question. Here’s what we found.

Global Consulting Market: Was estimated at $132 billion USD in 2020 (Statista)
North America: Is the largest consulting services market worldwide with annual revenues estimated at $64.4 billion. (Statista)
Regional Analysis: North America and Europe are highly mature markets contributing to 75% of the global consulting market revenue. (Beroe)
Number of Management Consultants in USA: 768,450 (Statista)
Growth Rate: Management consulting is anticipated to grow at a CAGR of more than 6 percent from 2021 to 2026 (Beroe)
Growth Drivers: The demand for operational efficiency, regulatory compliance and technology improvements. (Beroe)
Demand by Industry: Financial Services (25%), Manufacturing (16%), Public Sector (14%), Natural Resources & Power (12%), Wholesale & Retail (10%), Healthcare (7%), Communications & Media (7%), Aerospace & Defense (4%), Other Industries (5%) (Beroe)
Profits: Over the next 5 years, management consulting industry profitability is expected to remain steady as rising global business sentiment and profit drive new businesses. (Beroe)
Disruption: New business models such as crowdsourcing and network-based consulting are evolving in the industry, which can be disruptive in nature. Think of Wikistrat, HourlyNerd, and Business Talent Group as examples. (Beroe)

Croixstone Consulting is a boutique management consulting firm known for connecting the brightest minds in business and community. Learn how we drive business outcomes by accelerating and sustaining transformations here.

Understanding America’s Labor Shortage

Here’s an eye-opening fact that truly captures that enormous hiring challenge facing USA employers of all sizes.

If every unemployed person in the country found a job, we would still have 5.3 million open jobs.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce published research in early February of 2022 that featured this fact along with other data that the Croixstone team found fascinating. The following data points truly help to shape the story of today’s labor market.

We have 11.3 million job openings in the USA – but only 6 million unemployed workers.
As of October 2021, the pandemic drove 3 million adults into early retirement.
The childcare industry lost 370,600 jobs between February and April 2020 – and is still recovering.
Women participating in the workforce is at its lowest rate since the 1970s.
Last year, more than 47 million workers quit their jobs.
A Gallup survey found that 91% of workers in the USA hope they can continue to work some of their hours from home.
3 in 10 workers surveyed by Gallup signaled they would seek now employment if they were recalled to the office.

Learn more about the U.S. Chamber research here.

The seismic disruption in the USA’s workforce mandates that organizations of all sizes reimagine their people strategies. Croixstone’s team of highly-experienced human capital professionals are here to ideate and bring new thinking to your HR organization. Reach out to us today and let’s kick-start a conversation.

Most USA Workers are Open to Leaving

The Great Resignation is a powerful force to be reckoned with, and it shows no signs of easing up.

Case in point…Willis Towers Watson, the insurance broking and HR advisory firm, polled nearly 10,000 USA workers during December 2021 and January 2022 to gather insights for its Global Benefits Attitudes Survey.

The Croixstone team read the survey results last week, and the insights are truly stunning.

Most USA workers (53%) are open to leaving their employers.
44% of USA workers said they are actively looking for a new job and plan to seek new employment in the first quarter of 2022.
4.3 million Americans left their jobs in January 2022, and a whopping 48 million workers left their jobs in the calendar year 2021.
25% of workers feel stuck in their jobs and would leave if they could. The discontent is even higher as you move up the ladder, and it increases to 30% of managers and 55% of senior managers.

Learn more here.

What’s the Future of Consulting?

As we count down the final days of 2021 and look forward to the shiny new year ahead, Croixstone is celebrating a record year of revenues and client growth.

Croixstone sees a very bright future ahead for both the consulting industry and our firm. That said, the pathway to the future must be navigated amidst the powerful forces of disruption that are igniting rapid transformation in the consulting industry.

We were curious to learn how other thought leaders in our industry are seeing the future of consulting. We came across an interesting online article published by Future of Everything that features fascinating insights into the future from 14 consulting industry experts. Click here to learn their thoughts.

What’s Top of Mind for CEOs

Fortune Magazine and Deloitte have partnered to track the perspectives and actions of CEOs from the world’s largest and most influential companies. Every 4 months, the duo gathers key insights into CEOs’ priorities, challenges, and expectations across 15 industries, including finance, health care, and technology.

At the end of last month, Fortune/Deloitte shared the results of their latest survey that revealed that a growing number of chief executives expect pandemic disruptions to continue. Additionally, they remain bullish about growth while they are focused on talent, and taking action on climate change.

Our key takeaway from the latest survey?

Talent remains a top priority for CEOs.

Nearly three-quarters of CEOs say they expect labor and skills shortages to in influence or disrupt their strategy over the next 12 months. When asked about the biggest challenge they face, nearly 50% of CEOs name challenges related to talent – up from a 25% in the Fortune/Deloitte summer survey.

Asked separately about the top three challenges to their organization’s talent and workforce goals, the major of CEOs named attracting and recruiting talent (57%), designing a post-pandemic workplace (53%), and retaining talent (51%). Building a diverse, equitable, and inclusive workforce is also high on the list of challenges for 43% of CEOs.

Click here to read the full report.

Consulting Industry Factoids

How is the consulting industry faring amidst the global pandemic?

Thanks to the hard work of our talented consultants, Croixstone Consulting celebrated a record revenue year in 2020 (and 2021 is proving to be even better)! In light of our firm’s success, we decided to dive into Statista’s latest published consulting industry research over the weekend to see how the rest of the industry is faring.

Here are 5 fast facts about the management consulting industry.

Industry Size: The global consulting market delivers $132B in annual revenues while the USA market produces $64.4B. The USA is the world’s largest management consulting market.

COVID Impact: After experiencing continuous growth between 2015 and 2019, the consulting industry saw a significant revenue loss (-12.5%) across all markets and segments in 2020.

Number of Businesses: In 2020, the number of consulting businesses in the USA reached 831,621, a slight increase over 2019. It is estimated that this number will increase by 30,000 units in 2021.

Number of Consultants: Since 2012, the number of management consultants in the USA has increased every year, reaching 734,000 consultants in 2020.

Revenue Per Consultant: The average annual revenue per consultant of management consultancies worldwide decreased overall between 2015 and 2020. During a 2020 survey, respondents reported an average annual revenue per consultant of $208K.

Click here to read more highlights from Statista’s latest research on the consulting services industry.

Know Charlotte: 2021 Quarter 2 Growth Report

The Charlotte Regional Business Alliance has published its latest Growth Report for 2021 Quarter 2. Although Croixstone Consulting serves clients across the United States, we remain exceptionally invested in the economic growth of the Charlotte Region where our firm is based.

Following are our 5 key takeaways from the latest Growth Report.

COVID Job Losses: The Charlotte Region has 43,700 fewer jobs than pre-pandemic (-3.1%), outperforming the nation (-4.4%).

Job Gains: June 2021 showed the most jobs gained since October 2020 (and more than 2x any previous month in 2021).

Economic Development Projects: 30 economic development projects were announced in Q2, the highest of any quarter since the CLT Alliance created the Growth Report in 2019.

Capital Investments: These 30 projects represent $1.2B in capital investments (the 3rd highest amount in the history of the Growth Report).

Labor Market: The Charlotte Region is experiencing the lowest ratio of job seekers to job openings since at least 2006.

Read the 2021 Quarter 2 Growth Report here.

Croixstone Recommends: 2Q 2021 Middle Market Indicator Overview Webinar

When we are seeking information on the Middle Market, one of our first “go to” places is the National Center for the Middle Market (NCMM). This organization is a collaboration between The Ohio State University Fisher College of Business and Chubb, and is a leading source of knowledge, leadership, and innovative research on the middle market economy.

Every quarter the NCMM publishes the Middle Market Indicator (MMI) that provides valuable insights into 5 KPIs including: 1) Revenue, 2) Employment, 3) Economic Confidence, 4) Capital Investment, and 5) Expansion. NCMM recently published the MMI for Q2 2021, and we invite you to join us for an exclusive webinar being held Wednesday, August 11 at 1PM EDT where NCMM’s Managing Director, Doug Farren, will be detailing the results of the latest MMI.

Charlotte Snapshot: International Business & Foreign Direct Investment

As the world’s athletes gather in Tokyo for the 2020 Summer Olympics, we are placing a #FreshStart spotlight this week on the roles of international business and foreign direct investment across the greater Charlotte region.

Did you know?…

More than 1,000 international companies representing 40 countries call the Charlotte region home.

More than 250,000 foreign-born individuals and families are located across the region.

North and South Carolina are 2 of only 9 US states where employment in international business exceeds 7% of total employment.

Almost 50% of international companies in the Charlotte region are in manufacturing.

The Charlotte region recorded a nearly 16% increase in exports between 2016 and 2019.

Thanks to the Charlotte Regional Business Alliance for providing these statistics. Learn more about international business and foreign direct investment across the Charlotte region here.

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