The Job Market Is… Confusing?

Hello and thank you to everyone tuning into today’s episode of The Hirewell Update. I’m your host, Ryan Brown, Vice President of our Corporate Functions team, and this is my co-host. I’m Emily Canna. See what I did there. Director of our Go-To-Market recruiting team. Before we kick off the show, you can find all of our content at talentinsights.hirewell.com or like to learn more about Hirewell and our service offerings,

check at our website, www.hirewell.com. And we’ve got some new countdown music and we were both a little shocked, just a little behind the scenes for everyone. We actually had to stop recording because we had no idea that our platform that we use updated the countdown music. Yeah. And we don’t like to stop recording.

Like the show might not be live anymore, but this is like a one take, run it through one time situation. But absolutely, that was, um, I kind of liked it. It was almost giving like a- like kind of sting vibes. I don’t know. Yeah, it kind of was. I totally, totally agree. It was an interesting way to kick off the show though.

But it’s been a minute since we filmed. We’ve like had to shake off a little bit of rust to get things going, but I’m excited to be back. How are you Em? I’m doing great. I’m so excited to be back too. I know I had to double, just check myself too. This is the first time I’ve introduced myself out loud as Emily Canna, so we’re working on that.

I know, you know, if you’ve been watching our show for a while, I’ve been married for a couple of years, but the, the name change process is slow. So I’m just trying it out. I know Dawn was like, just like commit to it. Mm-hmm. Keep saying it. Keep giving people that name. So it’s me. I’m the same person.

We’ll see how it goes. Yes. And I’m- kept the Goor in there though. Just Yes. I mean, have to keep it. I’m slowly easing into the name change too. I’m a little bit further behind than you Em, but

thank you for giving me some leeway. I’ll tell my husband that I still have some runway to, to get things going for that name change. You do. But I feel like since we haven’t filmed, and I mean we, we film like at least once a month, but I just feel like we filmed at the very beginning of March and now it’s already like, I know we’re filming this like April 15th.

It’ll probably go live next week. Mm-hmm. I feel like so much has changed since the last time we’ve filmed. So I am excited because I feel like people are constantly asking us, like, you’re the market experts, you’re in it every single day. Mm-hmm. Like, what’s going on with the job market? So I am excited to kind of get into things today.

I’m excited to get into things today too. I feel like the tail of the job market that we’re gonna, we’re gonna talk about today, slightly different than where predictions were at the beginning of the year. So we did a kind of a prediction show at the beginning of Q1. I think we filmed it in early January.

We were really excited about what we were seeing in the market, feeling super optimistic, but like you said, today we’re going to dig into the current state of the job market and let’s be real. It, it’s kind of all over the place. And we’ve got some strong job numbers one week and then layoffs happening the next.

And some companies are hiring like crazy. Others are still frozen. I don’t know about you. I’ve got a little bit of whiplash going on in terms of what we’re seeing. I think a lot of it of whiplash. Yeah. It’s sort of creating like this weird paradox. Mm-hmm. And talent is out there and people want to work.

But many companies are still sort of hesitant to hire, especially for full-time roles. Like I know we’re seeing a lot more like temp to perm contract gigs or just even drawn out interview processes. I know like for me, I focus a lot in like sales and marketing, go to market recruiting. We see less temp to perm, but I know I’ve been talking to you and like the contract gigs are, they’re back-

really, really back in a strong, strong way. And obviously I’ve seen some of those drawn out interview processes, whether it’s we both have contract or perm, doesn’t matter. It does not matter. No, and I mean, it’s interesting. You know, my focus for those of you that are tuning in for the first time is within corporate functions.

So think all things hr, administrative finance and accounting. And we’ve seen a major uptick in those temp to perm or contract gigs that are happening. But I hate to say this, these interview processes are taking just as long as full-time interview processes are too. Em, as we started to film early, well getting ready to film earlier today, I was sharing with you that I’ve had some roles that have been open for months that are contract opportunities and, you know, organizations just have

a really hard time making decisions right now. And you know, we’ve talked a little bit about just like the hesitancy to hire. You just mentioned that, Em. And you know, I think a lot of that’s just coming from uncertainty, frankly. Companies are watching interest rates, they’re waiting for budget approvals.

Yep. And they’re watching the market conditions like a hawk. There’s a lot of like let’s wait and see vibe happening right now. And I think we’re all feeling that in some ways, but we’re definitely seeing it emulated right now in the job market. Yeah. I mean, it’s like we’re all like watching things like a hawk.

It’s crazy. I think like meanwhile, job seekers are kind of stuck in limbo right now. Like we’re hearing from a lot of folks who are getting into even final rounds of interview processes, and you said some of these processes are drawn out, so they have been through step after step after step and getting to final rounds and even then still getting ghosted or delayed,

for weeks. It’s super frustrating. I was actually even just catching up with, not even, you know, like professionally, but catching up with a friend who’s interviewing, who had like her final round interview, I think it was now like two and a half weeks ago. And just like literally crickets until, you know, she finally reached out.

It’s crazy. It is crazy. And you know, I posted a teaser earlier today on LinkedIn about the fact that we were filming today and what today’s topic was going to be. And someone had commented in, on the post and had just said like, yes, this is, I totally am resonating with this. Someone I’ve been working with that is actively job seeking

and you know, she’s had kind of every experience that we just explained. You know, getting a ton of touches in terms of contract gigs, full-time opportunities, but they’re all at different stages taking different amounts of time. But no decision is being made across the board. Fingers crossed that changes for her

by the end of this week, we’ll put out some good vibes. But we say all this to say, so many people are experiencing this, especially candidates that are actively seeking. And you know, it’s just, it’s absolutely been wild in terms of what we’ve seen. But, you know, we have, we need to like give some like advice though.

Like, I feel like we always try to like, you know, say, here’s what we’re seeing and here’s what we should do. I’m curious, just like advice that you have? I’m going to take some advice- well, I’m going to give some advice for employers.

I feel like this is- employer side. Yeah, for the employer side. You take the candidate side Em. But for employers, my biggest piece of advice right now would be don’t let indecision cost you top talent. If you find someone great, you have to move. The market might be cautious, but the best candidates still aren’t lasting long.

We say this regardless of whatever the job market looks like. If you find top talent, you have to move on them because great talent is not going to stay available week, over week, over week. So make that decision and make the hire. Uh, yes, could not agree more. Like if there is someone that you need to have, do not drag your feet. Do it.

Take the plunge. Please. I think on the candidate side of things too, it’s tough. And again, we feel you. You are not alone. Like you said, you had that immediate comment on LinkedIn when you posted about this. I was talking to friends, we talked to candidates daily about this. So advice for candidates, focus on momentum. Apply where there’s urgency and ask those questions really as early on as possible.

Like, is this a critical backfill or a newly created role? Mm-hmm. Like what’s the actual timeline for a decision? Transparency is key, key, key. And I actually, I know that I’m doing the candidate side advice, but I would give the same advice to employers. Transparency is key. Mm-hmm. Right. And we talk all the time about how interview process affects an employer’s brand.

It’s affecting your employer brand. So, you know, even if you’re dragging your feet and not communicating, candidates are not walking away with a very positive taste in their mouth saying good things about your company. Mm-hmm. Transparency is key. So if you’re saying, “Hey, this is a newly created role.

Timeline for decision is actually a few weeks from now” at least candidates are going to like, walk away with that expectation and not be super confused or frustrated or upset. They might still be. But at least they should be less so if you’re on the same page. Right, right. Transparency is key, period. On both sides of the board.

It’s so key. Yeah. We probably said that a million times on this show, but it rings true. The more like everything always comes back to that, you know? Yes. It’s full circle moment. That is absolutely true. You know, someone asked me the other day, do you think that the job market is broken this year?

And I paused to think about it ’cause I was like, do I think it’s broken? And the answer I came to ultimately is no. But I do think that there’s the sentiment of just being cautious and I think that so many organizations are being cautious. We’re obviously seeing things in the political environment happening that are causing a lot of organizations to just kind of pause and see what will happen in terms of how

you know, changes might impact their industry and decision making and all of those things. But I still think that there is opportunity for organizations to hire, for people to find great roles. I just think that on both sides, you have to navigate it a bit more strategically than you probably have in years past.

And with patience on the candidate side, and transparency. With patience, yes. No, I think, I think that’s great. I’m glad that, you know, we ended with that advice. And I agree with you. I know you said the theme is more cautious than it is broken, and I’m still cautiously optimistic.

I am too. So, you know, I think, like you said, things are taking a little longer but things are open and things are moving. And like you said, were saying people are out there and want to work, so. Mm-hmm. I am still cautiously optimistic. You and me both. We’re the optimism gals. Well, that’s all I’ve got today.

Do you have anything else for us? That’s all I’ve got too. I mean, obviously, like we said, the market’s ever changing. It’s ever evolving. It’s kind of weird this year, so I’m honestly excited to see how the rest of this month plays out, what happens in May. You know, I think that we’ll see a lot of different things throughout this year.

Probably changes month over month, but like you said, we’re both optimistic, both excited to see what happens. Yeah, and we’ll always remind you even if you just have questions like, you know, I was saying like we are kind of the market experts. It sounds like weird to say, I don’t know why I am uncomfortable saying it, but it’s true.

This is what we spend, you know, the largest portion of our day doing and very, very ingrained in. So if you are curious, you’re, you know, your team is thinking of hiring, your company’s thinking of hiring and you just have questions about the market, the best way to go about things- we are always so happy to chat about the market in general, Hirewell’s services.

Mm-hmm. Whatever it is. So yeah, definitely reach out to Ryan and I. Or Ryan and Ryan and me, I guess would be correct. Correcting my own grammar live. But yeah, definitely reach out to Ryan and me. We’re always, always happy to chat about what we’re seeing in the market, if it could be helpful to you.

We sure are. Absolutely Em. Well, it’s been a minute, but take us home. I’ll take us home. That is it for today’s Hirewell Update. If you’re seeing these market slowdowns or you know, surprises in your own job search or your hiring processes, again, we’d love to hear your perspective. So drop a note.

We want to hear it in the comments. Tell us about your experience just navigating kind of the weirdness of the job market, you know, so far. But that is a wrap for this week’s episode. Thank you for joining us. A reminder, you can find all of our content at talentinsights.hirewell.com. Or if you’d like to learn more about Hirewell and our service offerings, check out our website.

It’s www.hirewell.com. We will see you all next time. Have a good one.