Dive Brief:
- Sixty-one percent of workers surveyed said that they’d be willing to take a pay cut to avoid being laid off in a recession, according to a report released Nov. 29 by Insight Global.
- More than 3 in 4 surveyed also said they plan to stay in their current job because of the economic climate. Notably, tech workers were especially concerned about their jobs, likely due to reported massive layoffs in the sector, Insight Global said. Eighty-three percent of tech workers were worried about losing their job.
- Over half of managers surveyed said their organization is “labor hoarding” – focusing on retaining talent to avoid a labor shortage once the economy recovers.
Dive Insight:
The U.S. may not officially be in a recession, but that may not matter to workers. Forty-one percent of respondents to a Conference Board survey conducted in July and August said they felt the country was already in a recession — before the well-publicized layoffs at large tech companies, like Amazon and Meta.
Companies may have learned their lesson after the 2008 recession was followed up by a talent crunch that lasted almost the full decade following. An Employ Inc. report published in September highlighted the strange nature of the 2022 market, wherein positions were filling fast but hiring managers felt it was difficult to fill open jobs. In response, labor hoarding has emerged as a potential way to avoid having to make up lost ground once the economy is more stable.
Regardless of the depth of the recession, should it hit as expected, employees have power – and that isn’t going to change anytime soon, PwC U.S. chair and senior partner Tim Ryan said during a Washington Post Live event in August. Several macro aspects of the labor market have changed, he noted.
And one of those changes is the demographic patterns of the job market. An aging population will keep the market tight even in a recession, recent Glassdoor data indicated. That means employers may need to tap into often-overlooked talent pools, such as older adults who still want to work; workers with disabilities; and the formerly incarcerated, among others.
