What Should Workers Expect in the Job Market for 2024?
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Here's your money briefing for Wednesday, December 27th. I'm J.R. Whelan for The Wall Street Journal. The red-hot labor market cooled off a bit in 2023. Employers slowed the pace of hiring, raises got smaller, and job openings fell to a 28-year low. But what can you expect in 2024 if you're looking for a job or a raise?
Companies are going to look at people who are a proven commodity working for them already, and they're going to give wage increases. But when you're hiring people from the outside, what used to be two, three years ago, 15, 20, 30% increases, that's not going to happen anymore. And more companies are expected to make use of AI.
If you have a job that involves something that an AI can do more efficiently or more quickly and doesn't involve human interaction, your head's going to be on the chopping block.
We'll talk to LaSalle Network staffing firm founder and CEO Tom Gimbel and NYU professor Tessa West after the break.
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The days of big raises and seemingly endless job listings may be over, at least for now. LaSalle Network staffing firm founder and CEO Tom Gimbel joins me to discuss what workers and job seekers can expect from the job market in 2024. So, Tom, we've been in a tight labor market for a few years now, with workers holding the balance of power when it comes to wages.
How did the U.S. labor market change in 2023 and what’s the episode about?
What can we expect in 2024?
When you talk about the economy and the jobs market, we look at where wages are at. And what we've seen over the past few years was a quasi-artificial inflation based on municipalities in certain cities and states paying hourly wages that were so much higher. during COVID, and they couldn't go back on that. So on the hourly basis, they've jumped up so much, they're not going to keep doing that. On the white-collar side and salaries in that area, it's now become more of an employer's market again, more of a traditional market. We're seeing companies do larger rifts, reduction in force and layoffs, and that puts the ball back in the employer's hands when it comes to salaries. Our survey showed that compensation requirements was the number one challenge that companies faced, meaning employees wanted more money than companies were willing to pay.
And that's going to change tremendously. 90% of the companies we surveyed plan to increase wages in 2024. However, half of that by no more than 5%. So what we're seeing is that companies are going to look at people who are a proven commodity working for them already and they're going to give wage increases. They're going to give salary increases. But when you're hiring people from the outside, what used to be two, three years ago, 15, 20, 30% increases, that's not going to happen anymore because the unemployment number with more people coming into the pool is going to drop that. How will benefits work into that equation? the insurance from a benefit standpoint are always there. And those, while they keep going up, it's not something that you can really take away from and say, we're not going to offer health insurance anymore.
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