February 2, 2024, Cleveland, OH —AMS, the global talent solutions business responds to latest US Bureau of Labor Market statistics. In January, hiring showed steady momentum as payroll employment rose by 353,000 and unemployment remained unchanged at 3.7%.
Commenting on the latest statistics Nicky Hancock, Managing Director, Americas Region at AMS said:
“As the year ramps up, we look forward to an interesting next 6 months in talent. We are excited about how companies will digitally evolve to maximize on their opportunity to hire great talent across a range of sectors and skills.
In Pharmaceuticals and Life Sciences hiring activity continues, with an upturn expected in H2 of 2024. Financial Services is mixed with some starting the year with an increase in hiring activity and investing in talent initiatives around DEI and technology optimization, while others have started more cautiously building talent pipelines to support hiring volumes returning at the mid-year point. In High Volume hiring, volumes remain, with a trend towards contingent work continuing.
We are also seeing an increase in union wage rates, resulting in organizations with large hourly union workforces, evaluating their employment costs and having to identify cost control opportunities to offset these increases.
As technology continues to transform hiring – there will be an emphasis on skills-based hiring, internal mobility and tech skilling in the months ahead. There will be more discussions around behavioral skills vs technical or functional skills across all industries.
Generative AI is a topic that continues to be a focus as it impacts the nature of roles. However, advancements in AI are not about replacing roles, it’s about enabling human expertise with tools to drive improved productivity and better outcomes.
Technology will continue to drive innovation in the talent space as organizations build out test cases that demonstrate improvements in experience, efficiency and speed.
Organizations are talking less about large scale TA transformations in the traditional sense and are moving towards focusing on a more regenerative and incremental evolution that is ongoing.”
