2021 appeared to be a great year for both home sellers and job seekers. As we quickly head toward 2023, that no longer seems to be the case. In the face of layoffs and hiring freezes, we asked Sara Causey, a Staffing & Recruiting SME with more than a decade of experience and the owner of Causey Consulting LLC, to help us understand the job market situation.
First things first, how did you get started in staffing & recruiting?
It was something of a happy accident. Like most people in the industry, I never had any plans to be part of it. In fact, I had a sour taste in my mouth about recruiters because I’d had a few negative experiences with them when I was a job seeker myself, so I most definitely never imagined I would get involved. When I was at a point of needing to make a job change in order to have more upward mobility, I was contacted by a recruiter. I thought he was going to pitch jobs to me in the energy sector but instead, that company decided to hire me as an internal employee. As the saying goes: the rest is history.
Is the current job market the weirdest one you’ve seen?
It’s pretty odd, that’s for sure. I’m in a part of the Midwest that’s oil & gas country and I’ve been through several iterations of the oil boom-bust cycles there. It always seems to play out the same way: you see people making a lot of money and obligating themselves for a variety of things and then when the bust cycle hits, the repo men stay busy taking all of those items back. A lot of the FOMO and YOLO that we saw in the housing market last year was also part of the job market, too. You could call or email almost anyone to discuss a possible job change and people were incredibly open to it. Now? Not so much. I think a lot of people are nervous about the economy overall and worried about stability. There is an old saying “last one hired, first one fired.” It’s not true in every case, but a general lack of tenure can make people anxious. So I think it’s very weird in the sense of the conflicting narratives we’re getting. On one hand, we’re still being told that the labor market is “blazing hot” but on the other, we’re seeing layoffs, hiring freezes, and budget cuts.
So how do we make sense of it?
I think it’s important to pay attention to what is going on in your local area as well as what’s going on in your specific industry. I’m a big believer that by the time you are “officially” told something by a commentator or a talking head, you’ve waited too late. It’s sort of like people who don’t believe their own eyes if it’s raining outside but that storm hasn’t shown up on the radar yet. You know that it’s raining – you don’t really need a meteorologist to tell you that it’s raining. People have the tendency to get busy and not think about whether the company they work for might be in economic peril or wonder whether they’re in a dying industry. I had a friend who worked in print journalism for decades. When the newspaper he worked for closed, he told me, “I actually saw this coming, but I refused to believe it. I didn’t want to go through the hassle of trying to find something else.” If we bury our heads in the sand, we do so at our risk. He had to go on the job market at a time when a lot of other journalists in the area were also unemployed and it took him quite a while to find another job.
Do you think that’s a key reason why employees are looking at side hustles or are trying to work more than one full-time job?
I would say the biggest reason for that is the economy. People are not only worried about layoffs but also about inflation. When it costs more every single time you go to the grocery store, that’s clearly troubling. But yes, a lot of employees are trying to hedge their bets as best as they can. Being on the frontlines of the job market, this is something I’ve noticed more and more. There are people who agree to go into a hiring funnel and then vanish. Whether they direct apply themselves or they come in through a third-party, they just ghost. In some cases, they are trying to get a pay raise or a promotion at their current job by mentioning someone else is interested. In other cases, they are trying to have a Plan B, C, and D lined up in the event of a layoff or company closure. I think someone on LinkedIn called it “career cushioning” because we have to have a kitschy term for everything now.
How do you suggest that people create a job-related Plan B?
There’s a lot of dialogue online about people being free agents versus franchise players even though those concepts are nothing new. I think a lot of employees are aware that they must function as free agents because we’ve seen a lack of loyalty from employers over the years. We no longer live in the time of retiring with a gold watch and a full pension. So part of creating your Plan B is realizing that the onus is on you to take care of yourself. I recommend that people have, at minimum, a list of the top five people they would call in the event of a job loss. It’s even better if you can have 10, 15, or 20. These should be individuals who will be a good reference for you as well as people who may truly be able to help you find a new job quickly. I would not rely solely on recruiters at staffing agencies because when unemployment is high, they usually don’t have many jobs to offer and the competition is fierce. Plus if you were perhaps less than nice to them during The Great Resignation, trust me, they will remember. I also suggest taking an honest appraisal of your finances. Are you living above your means? Do you have an emergency fund in case you were without a paycheck? As always, if you need professional financial guidance, seek out a financial planner, advisor, or credit counselor who can help.
For more HR insights and job market analysis, you can visit Sara at causeyconsultingllc.com
