Feeling the 15-Year Itch??

Welcome to The Shift, a weekly newsletter where I provide thought-provoking ideas to help you think differently about your career and money.

Experienced and Messy

It’s at about the 15-year mark when people start to get the career itch.

Where we start to maybe feel stuck and begin to question if this is really what we wanted to be when we grew up.

There’s books and research that back this up (here’s my favorite book).

Only this time, in this new society, we aren’t suppressing that itch. Nor are we feeding it with purchases of hot rods, Chanel bags, and fancy watches (no judgement here if you are).

Which means there are a whole heck of a lot of us, more than is probably typical in years past, that are exploring that itch.

It’s no wonder engagement is falling off a cliff in 2024!

Worker engagement is at an 11-year low, according to Gallup. They say younger generations and remote workers are driving forces of the change.

The devil is in the detail…

It’s the experienced workers, the ones that have been at it for 15 years or more, that are really becoming disengaged.

The most dramatic drop in engagement came from those born between 1980 and 1988 (light blue dotted line above), aka older millennials. There’s been a seven-point drop in engagement from the high of 39% in 2020 to 32% in the first quarter of 2024.

That’s no joke.

Reaching a Precipice

This is more evidence of the recalibration of work that is underway.

A slowdown is happening in the job market.

Higher paying, highly skilled industries – finance, tech, and business services (think consulting, accounting, legal, marketing and other services) - have sharply slowed their hiring¹ .  

While lower paying industries – leisure and hospitality, and retail – have been on hiring sprees¹ .

The difference is: the former is leveraged to the knowledge economy.

It’s an economy that is being impacted by the AI revolution. But also, by changing preferences and an awakening of choice by its workers.

All the while, corporations are sifting through ever increasing levels of bureaucracy to figure out how to utilize talent in their changing business models.

What’s odd is that despite the reduced levels of hiring for experienced workers, the excessive amount of job openings in these industries would have you believing that the demand was much higher…  

High Paying Divergence

According to the data, there are major labor shortages in finance, business services, and durable goods manufacturing.

That means there are more jobs than available workers. Which is why layoffs aren’t occurring.

That’s the type of environment prime for job switching and boosting your pay.

Yet, the number of people quitting their finance or manufacturing jobs is really low. Along with hiring… Which is something we see in tech, where there is surprising equilibrium in the number of unemployed and jobs available. One might think that as demand for AI picks up, hiring in tech would be too. Hmm.

So the math looks like this (with a bit of exaggeration):

• More jobs than people = lots of opportunity

• And, employees are less engaged

• Yet, no one is quitting

• Also, hiring has been limited

• = Vacancies remain 🤔

I call this a holding pattern. A recalibration.

The question is, who blinks first?

• Experienced employees, who take things into their own hands.

• Employers who know they will need the best talent to pursue their growth strategies.  

Hit me up and let me know what you think!! I love to hear from you. 😁
 

Let’s make The Shift!

P.S. Linking my TEDx Talk again - please watch, like, comment, and share to help me spread the word. 🙏

Lindsey

Sources:

1. Bureau of Labor Statistics.