Blog

The U.S. labor market is shifting gears.

November’s Employment Situation report shows job growth slowing to 64,000 positions and unemployment holding at 4.6%, signaling a transition from the red-hot hiring of recent years to a more measured pace. While health care and construction remain strong, other sectors are cooling, and wage growth is moderating without reversing. For employers, this means moving from “acute scarcity” to “selective competition”—a moment to rethink strategies for attracting and retaining talent in a changing landscape.

We near the end of the review of the seven individual attributes of the RESPECT model (Recognition, Exciting Work, Security, Pay, Education and Career Growth, Conditions, and Truth) with a focus on positive working conditions. 

When I began my research, I anticipated that positive physical working conditions would be among the things employees most wanted. However, I was surprised at how powerful the desire was for a supportive social environment. In fact, of the employees who stated positive working conditions was what they most wanted from their employer, only 18 percent pointed to physical conditions. Most of them—82 percent— identified positive social conditions. 

Employees want opportunities to develop skills over the course of a productive career. 

With this column, we pass the halfway mark in the review of the seven individual attributes of the RESPECT model (Recognition, Exciting Work, Security, Pay, Education and Career Growth, Conditions, and Truth) by turning our attention to Education and Career Growth. 

 October Sees Return of Private Sector Job Growth

The government shutdown has frozen the official BLS employment report and other crucial datasets, increasing reliance on high-frequency, private data such as ADP, Challenger and Reuters.

Despite a challenging backdrop and another month of the government shutdown, October’s gain of 42,000 private sector jobs signals a hopeful shift in labor market momentum. This marks the first positive movement since July, suggesting that employers may be regaining confidence and beginning to stabilize after months of uncertainty. Steady wage growth of 4.5% year-over-year further reinforces this resilience, indicating that businesses remain willing to invest in talent and maintain competitive compensation, even amid cautious hiring trends.