Recruiting fell in December with only 148,000 new jobs created according to Friday’s Labor Department figures. However, this marked the 87th straight month of job creation, which is an all-time record and a streak nearly twice as long as the second-best run.
Additionally, employers added over two million jobs for the seventh straight year in 2017 and the unemployment rate held at a 17-year low.
With 2.1 million new jobs recruited last year, it was only the second time in history (the other being in the 1990s) when the economy has produced jobs at such a sustained, robust pace. The job report documented employers adding jobs in manufacturing, construction and health care. Recruiting fell in retail. Finally, all levels of government recruited only a combined 2,000 jobs to payrolls last month.
Therefore, High Wage, Job Recruiting Needs To Accelerate!
Last year was the worst for payroll gains since 2010. Hourly wage growth has failed to match the pre-recession pace, despite a lower unemployment rate. This current labor-market expansion is more notable for its length than its strength. Payrolls grew by better than 2.5% annually, on average, during the economic expansions in the 1960s, 1980s and 1990s. Payroll growth has only topped 2% for the year once in the current upturn, in 2014.
Additionally, many economists expected job recruiting to be a lot higher last month with about 180,000 new jobs being projected.
Also, “real unemployment” moved up last month. The true figure is broad measure of unemployment and underemployment that includes Americans stuck in part-time jobs or too discouraged to look for work and increased in December to 8.1% from 8.0% the prior month.
Finally, revised job figures from the past two months show a net downward revision of 9,000 with only 252,000 jobs in November and 211,000 in October.
U.S. Needs A “Moon Project” For Recruiting High Wage Jobs!
Global economic expansion has resulted in a shortage of many skilled workers. This is especially true for the IT, engineering, technical, scientific and manufacturing technology talent that my executive recruiting firm specializes in. These workers remain in high demand, short supply and earning high job wages. Therefore, we need to focus on recruiting more of these types of high wage jobs.
One major way to do so is formulating another “moon project” like President Kennedy did in the 1960’s. This was a catalyst for many entrepreneurs creating new industries like the microchip field, which didn’t exist, but were greatly needed for the moon effort.
As I shared in my last article, the key is entrepreneurship is still alive and well in America and most of the net new jobs created over the past several decades have been recruited by smaller, entrepreneurial firms. As a result, a lot more needs to be done to cultivate entrepreneurship. Formulating a useful, “moon project” will assist entrepreneurial ventures and the job recruiting that comes from them.
One current example, may be the Trump administration’s $18 billion border wall with Mexico project, which will construct more than 700 miles of new and replacement barriers along the southwest border. Though many Democrats and Republicans alike debate the merits of this engineering project, this major expansion along our southwest border may serve as a catalyst for entrepreneurs to recruit creative ways to solve this problem.
This is by no means the only “moon project” our government can consider. Another may be setting a goal of being #1 in all the STEM education fields by 2027. With our student’s STEM skills woefully low versus the rest of the world, it makes it difficult for employers to recruit the types of engineer, scientist, IT, R&D, technical and manufacturing technology talent they need. The key is this too can become another major project to assist entrepreneurs into engineering creative solutions like Jack Kilby, the father of the microchip, did to help the moon project back in the 1960’s!
In Summary: “Moon Project” To Help Entrepreneurs Recruit High Paying Jobs!
Our government should focus on recruiting time proven strategies to grow entrepreneurial ventures. Over the past several decades, these small businesses have exponentially increased job recruiting more than any other employment measure! To that end, do not engage in measures that will hinder entrepreneurship, like higher taxes and more regulations. Instead, formulate a “moon project” which has both utilitarian value to the society and can spark entrepreneurs into recruiting more high paying jobs.
