The tide has turned. The great migration – when the shift to remote work prompted people to quit their jobs in droves – is officially over. Now comes the big hold.
According to a new survey from consulting firm Robert Half, 73% of respondents – workers at companies – said they plan to stay in their current roles through 2025. They gave reasons like having “positive company culture” and “feeling professionally fulfilled” or “being well compensated” at their current job. But there’s also a fourth reason why so many are staying put: the job market isn’t great and people are worried.
Job growth is significantly down. Job openings fell again to under 7.5m last month, a level that’s 4m below the openings available back in 2022. Wage gains during that same period had fallen from 6.7% to 4.1%.
Microsoft, AT&T, JP Morgan, Amazon and other companies are mandating their employees to return to their offices or lose their jobs. AI is already replacing workers at tech companies, Wall Street firms and retailers and some fear greater job losses in the not too distant future. Other cost cutting measures are leading big brands like Citi, Accenture, Tesla and Intel and other corporate giants to lay off tens of thousands of workers.
And what a great opportunity for small businesses!
For example, there’s my friend in Illinois. He has over 100 employees in his office. For years, he’s been spending half his days just walking around and talking to them. Telling them how important they are. Checking in on their lives and families. Asking them what they’re doing and what problems they’re having. Imagine working for that guy. Someone who genuinely cares about his workers. His turnover’s low. His retention is high.
Or another client of mine in Pennsylvania who allocates a big piece of his operating budget every year to employee technical training. Fear AI? “No way”, he tells me. “I want my people to embrace it! They need to learn about all the AI features in our software applications so that they can not only get more work done for me during the day but have a more balanced life themselves.” Did I mention that he gets workforce development money from his state that pays for this extra training? Now you know.
Another client of mine gives employees a $1,000 educational “credit” to use however they want. “They can learn origami or take a knitting class for all I care,” she said to me. “Becoming a better person makes you a better worker too.” Not coincidentally, she also enjoys the tax deductions allowed for providing this benefit.
There are other tax benefits that small business owners can use to recruit and retain all this available talent for healthcare, childcare, for hiring workers who were formerly incarcerated, off welfare or out of the military.
In the midst of all this job chaos, small business hiring and employment has remained constant. The latest Small Business Employment Watch report from Paychex, the giant HR and payroll processing firm, found that in July hiring among those companies with less than 50 employees “remained steady” which, according to the company’s CEO “speaks to the resiliency of small businesses given the amount of uncertainty they faced so far this year”.
Ever since I can remember my small business clients have complained about competing with big companies and the government for talent. Well, now the tide has turned. Big companies are laying off people by the tens of thousands. Governments are cutting their headcounts. The labor market is softening. But small businesses – who already employ half of this country’s workers – are still hiring and always looking for talent. The softening job market is a great opportunity for them. And for many workers.
