The jobs with almost no candidates in the US

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Over the past few years, professionals have been resigning in record numbers in many countries. Some are changing careers, while others are jumping from one job to another as a way to progress faster. There are still those who have simply abandoned the job market.

In the US, for example, Bureau of Labor Statistics data from August 2022 indicates that the percentage of people employed is one percentage point below the February 2020 level. In other words, people have left their jobs, and in some industries and positions, have not yet returned.

Perhaps this is not surprising, considering the poor conditions of many work environments throughout the Covid-19 pandemic.

The lack of professionals is more evident in the hotel and service sectors. Vacancies for dishwashers, truck drivers, salespeople, waiters, airport agents, home nurses and similar roles have been open for literally years.

But that’s not because people don’t want to work, according to experts. They want better jobs, with higher wages and better working conditions.

The labor market turmoil caused by the pandemic has allowed some workers to get better jobs — and if the hardest-hit industries want their workers back, they need to find ways to make their jobs more attractive.

Why are these vacancies open?

In the US, specifically, the data demonstrates that it has long been difficult to be a professional in the service sector.

In 2020, for example, full-time cafeteria workers earned, on average, about $2,000 (approximately R$10,500) a month — just below the poverty line for a family of four in the United States. country. The amount of weekly hours is rarely guaranteed, making it difficult for workers to be sure that their income will cover bills at the end of the month or provide for things like transportation and day care for their children.

All of this, in part, is due to the fact that the attrition rate — that is, the rate of people being laid off relative to average annual employment — has been high in the service sector for a long time.

In 2017, it was 53.8% for retail professionals; 72.4% for workers in the lodging and food sector; and 30.6% for industrial workers.

But if it was already difficult to work in the service sector before the pandemic, Covid-19 has made everything totally unbearable for many workers.

Stores that remained open faced supply chain disruptions as well as spikes and dips in customer demand. Fewer employees needed to work longer hours, and longer work hours contributed to burnout.

With schools closed and public transport reduced, professionals faced difficulties in caring for their children and commuting to work.

Cases of worker abuse and customer rudeness have also skyrocketed. And while some companies have offered specific bonuses, few have raised salaries or offered additional risk.

In some cases, the work was dangerous. Other forms of business have migrated to the online environment, but “in the hosting industry, for example, it is very difficult to replace an employee at the reception of a hotel with someone working virtually”, says Serge da Motta Veiga, professor of human resources management at EDHEC Business School in Paris, France.

This means that frontline workers in the service sector, forced to interact with colleagues and customers while everyone else took shelter at home, were among the most vulnerable to Covid-19.

In the first year of the pandemic, 68% of the dead in the US were manual, retail and service workers.

It is understandable that over the last couple of years attrition rates have skyrocketed. By 2021, 64.6% of retail workers, just under 40% of industry workers and up to 86.3% of workers in the room and board services sector have left their jobs.

While security and general suffering were important factors, they were not the only reasons for the mass exodus. People also crave stability, which is hard to get in a low-paying job.

A 2019 study found that turnover in minimum-wage jobs is more than double the US national average.

“These jobs are precarious”, explains da Motta Veiga.

“Job security has become the number one thing people want, above all other benefits like a flexible work schedule or working remotely.”

There is yet another reason that many people quit: they could afford to. The lack of manpower left many companies at the mercy of the people who worked (or did not) for them.

With the labor market so biased in favor of professionals, it is easier for workers to leave one job and take another, which further reduces the incentive for people to return to jobs they found undesirable.

The people who held those positions now do temporary work or have changed sectors, according to Motta Veiga.

“They are trying to transfer their knowledge to sectors where they can be really respected, well paid and have better opportunities.”

Why aren’t people going back to their jobs?

The layoffs epidemic seen in many countries between 2021 and 2022, known as the Great Resignation, left vacancies in several sectors.

But David Dwertmann, a management professor at the Rutgers University School of Business in Camden, says it has been difficult to rehire workers to fill specific low-paying positions, for the same reasons as the layoffs that spawned those vacancies.

He points to a study by the American think tank (research and debate center) Pew Research Center that asked people who left their jobs about the reason for their dismissal. Low salary was the most indicated reason, followed by “lack of opportunities for advancement” and “feeling of disrespect”.

“If you’re frying hamburgers or something like that, it’s not very easy to get ahead. Not everyone will be a manager. A lot of people are stuck in these jobs for years and years,” says Dwertmann.

“Professionals just don’t feel like they’re being valued enough and they don’t feel like they’re being treated well enough.”

With a market full of better opportunities, people who feel stagnant or mistreated in their jobs take advantage when they find a golden opportunity to get out.

Another factor, according to Dwertmann, is the wave of retirement of the Baby Boom generation (those born between 1946 and 1964), which opened up even more vacancies in the US job market.

“It’s like the perfect storm,” he says.

“I think Covid-19 was probably a big reason why [os baby boomers que estavam pensando em se aposentar] say, ‘You know what? Enough!’, because they are the groups most at risk of exposure to Covid, especially those who work in the service sector in face-to-face service.”

“I think that a large part of that specific population, who could afford it, simply decided to retire. I imagine that many of them will probably never return to the job market”, ponders Dwertmann.

This exodus of the Baby Boom generation was added, he said, to the lack of immigration in the United States in recent years, which has left gaps in sectors that normally employ newly arrived immigrants.

“Partly due to the pandemic, partly due to political changes, immigration to the United States has actually halved,” says Dwertmann.

“And these are some of the people who used to fill part of the vacancies that require low education or low qualifications.”

What are companies doing?

It’s not uncommon these days to see signs on the door of fast-food joints, convenience stores and grocery stores across the United States offering never-before-seen starting hourly wages for new hires.

Many employers have instituted hiring bonuses (gloves). In 2021, Amazon announced new jobs and said it would pay a $1,000 bonus for jobs in the warehouse and transportation sectors. The Hilton hotel chain has begun offering a hiring bonus of at least $500 (approximately $2,600) to housekeepers and other employees.

Financial incentives are welcome, of course, but companies do not strive to address other important things workers want that these “unwanted” jobs often don’t offer: flexibility, predictability, and better working conditions.

“I think employers need to respond not only by raising wages and offering gloves on hiring, but also, for example, by planning their employees’ schedules differently,” says David Dwertmann.

“Ensuring that there is some predictability for employees, in terms of when they start and how many hours they work per week, so they can, for example, manage the children’s daycare.”

Serge da Motta Veiga agrees that focusing only on money is a limited vision. Of course, people want to get what they think their time and energy are worth, but companies should also “ask people, ‘What do you want? What’s your priority? Security? Flexibility?'”

He says companies need to be creative to make these jobs more attractive.

To fill an “unwanted” position, Dwertmann concludes, you have to not only make it financially profitable, but also offer some flexibility, some assurance of security, and find a way to build loyalty.

“The pandemic arrived, and the first thing people did was lay off a large number of professionals”, he says.

“They thought that when it was all over, everyone would just come back. But the workers actually said, ‘You know what? You didn’t stand by me, I’m not going to work with you again.’

This text was originally published here.

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