In an effort to hire, employers are pulling out all the stops. Many have increased pay, offered hiring bonuses, added benefits, created flexible working schedules, and in many cases even changed working conditions. All these changes have not only made working more profitable for employees, but in many cases, it has increased safety in the workplace.
Some employers have even gone so far as to offer paid tuition for college in an effort to entice workers to sign on with them.
Add these enticements to the fact that many of the pandemic economic programs have now terminated and it totaled up to adding 531,000 workers to the payroll in October. But as a whole, the U.S. is still short about 3 million workers from its pre-pandemic high – with still around 10.4 million job openings.
There seems to be two main reasons for the influx in employees recently hired. One, the fact that workers are able to work remotely from home, and two, retirees that previously identified as retired are returning back to work.
Working Remotely
Being able to work remotely solves several problems for many workers: no commuting, less child-care expenses, less need for office attire. All of this adds up to saving money. To highlight this effect, as late as two years ago, only about 2% of the job openings listed working remotely as an option; now over 10% of the job openings tout this feature.
But not all jobs can be done remotely – especially in national security. About 60% of the jobs listed still must be performed at a brick-and-mortar place of business or in an office environment.
Retirees Returning to Work
Of the retirees identifying as retiring during the pandemic, 2.6% returned to work in October; over the last three months, approximately 625,000 retired workers returned to the workplace. Many returned back to their former positions, but at a higher wage and with more benefits.
During the pandemic, five million workers over 55 “pulled the pin” and retired. By some estimates, 1.5 million of those were early retirements – they had not planned to retire but did so because of the pandemic. One million were natural retirements – they had planned to retire at this point anyway before the pandemic, and 900,000 left the workforce for other reasons.
But with the way we handle a global pandemic always changing, vaccination rates increasing, wages going up and more benefits added, the lure to come out of retirement and back to work is too great for many to ignore.
Veterans in High Demand
Veterans are a special breed of employees that employers seek to hire. Not only do they possess the desirable “soft” skills employers love to find when hiring, but many either have, or have had, a security clearance, which opens many doors that are otherwise closed to those never having had a clearance. Because of the clearance application processing wait time – over a year – and at a cost up to several thousand dollars, employers with job openings that require security clearances like to hire veterans.
If you are looking to serve your country again by getting back into the workforce … and you have clearance experience, view these types of jobs listed here.
