Employment Trends – Croixstone

We’re Serving Up Consulting BUZZ!

Our leaders at Croixstone spend time each week speaking at length with clients, prospects and consultants across the greater Charlotte region and beyond. We’re often asked the following questions by those in our professional networks.

What’s the buzz out there?
What is top of mind for companies in 2021?
What are you hearing from consultants?

Here’s a bulleted list, in no particular order, of the things we are hearing and seeing from clients, prospects and consultants.

Hiring is difficult. The economy is rebounding, hiring is up, and it is increasingly difficult to fill roles with top-tier talent. The latest Workforce Report from LinkedIn provides insights into the hiring boom.

IPOs are booming. Global IPO deal numbers and proceeds have posted the best performance witnessed in 20 years (and this is driving demand in management consulting). Read EY’s IPO Q1 2021 Report to learn more.

SPACs are hot, hot, hot. Special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) IPOs were more active in Q1 2021 than through all of 2020.

M&A activity is on fire. During the first quarter of 2021, global mergers and acquisitions activity totaled $1.3 trillion, up 94% compared to Q1 of last year.

ERP implementation activity is robust. Many of our clients are planning ERP implementations to go live in 2022. The global ERP software market size stood at USD 38.15 billion in 2018 and is projected to reach USD 71.63 billion by 2026, exhibiting a CAGR of 8.55.

Hackers are targeting the middle market. One-third of middle market organizations reported ransomware attacks in 2020, according to a recent cybersecurity special report from RSM.

COVID-19 trauma is an ongoing issue. Employers are dealing with employee pandemic stress that is inevitably spilling over into at-work life.

In-Demand Skills

LinkedIn has used data from more than 660 million professionals in its network and more than 20 million job listings to identify the hard and soft skills that are most in-demand in 2020.

HARD SKILLS

1) Blockchain
2) Cloud & Distributed Computing
3) Analytical Reasoning
4) Artificial Intelligence
5) UX Design
6) Business Analysis
7) Affiliate Marketing
8) Sales
9) Scientific Computing
10) Video Production

SOFT SKILLS

1) Creativity
2) Persuasion
3) Collaboration
4) Adaptability
5) Emotional Intelligence

Learn more here.

Fresh Links – June 18th

A curated list of business, career and community links.

L inkedIn’s “Workforce Report” for June 2020.

The U.S. added 2.5 million jobs in May 2020.

Growth Report from Charlotte Regional Business Alliance.

231 new jobs are coming to Kannapolis.

Croixstone is an active Community Partner of the Charlotte Chapter of the National Black MBA Association.

So How Is The Labor Market Looking?

Given our connectivity with middle market and large corporations across the greater Charlotte region, the Croixstone team is asked this question almost every day.

Our answer? It’s simple.
The story varies greatly based on education level attained.

As of May 2020, the unemployment rate for those with a Bachelors degree or higher was significantly lower than the 15.0% rate for high school graduates with no college degree:

Bachelors Degree: 8.4%
Masters Degree: 5.6%
Professional Degree: 5.9%
Doctoral Degree: 3.5%

Keep in mind that economists have long believed that the overall economy is at “full employment” at a rate of around 5%.

Based on our understanding of these rates and ongoing discussions with c-suite leaders, the Croixstone team believes ample career opportunities continue to exist for highly-educated professionals in today’s workforce.

That said, the market is certainly more competitive in 2020 than the past several years. For that reason, professionals in career transition mode are wise to focus on their personal branding and professional networking strategies to ensure a competitive edge.

LinkedIn’s June Workforce Report

LinkedIn publishes a monthly report on employment trends in the U.S. workforce. The report provides helpful insights into hiring, skills gaps, and migration trends across the country, From a migration perspective, LinkedIn captures insights tied to members who change their locations on their profiles. In the June 2019 report, Charlotte was among the top three USA cities (behind Austin and Denver) that gained the most workers. Read LinkedIn’s June 2019 Workforce Report here.

Demand for Older Workers

Croixstone Consulting only hires experience – and demand is rising in the marketplace for older professionals with deep experience. With the labor market at its tightest in two decades, companies are increasingly turning to older workers to meet their talent needs.

Last September, Forbes magazine published an article addressing this trend that benefits older workers with experience. We found the following factoids to be especially interesting:

The unemployment rate for people 55 and older is now just 3.1%, less than the overall jobless rate of 3.9%.
Workers 55 and older are the fastest-growing segment of the U.S. labor force.
Job growth for people 55 and older is up 4.5%, according to ADP. That’s more than twice as high as the 1.7% job growth for workers overall.

Read the full article here.