A new report from job site Glassdoor looks at five labor market trends to watch in 2018 and beyond.
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The report, written by Andrew Chamberlain, PhD, chief economist at Glassdoor, notes that these trends will disrupt the way companies attract, hire, and retain talent.
Trend #1: Bracing for AI in HR and Finance
Artificial intelligence (AI) and automation are poised to impact nearly every facet of the workforce in some way, but two industries are ripe for big changes in 2018: human resources and finance. Revolutionary new AI tools are complementing people’s skills in both HR and finance, upending many established and easy-to-automate roles.
In HR, AI is taking over low-value aspects of many HR jobs, allowing professionals to focus on higher-value uses of their time, the report notes. “AI tools have the potential to help companies identify hard-to-find candidates at scale, correct subtle gender and other biases in hiring, and provide powerful and scalable solutions to the growing problem of ‘resume overload’ facing HR teams,” Chamberlain writes.
Trend #2: Bringing Transparency to the Application Process
While workplaces have increased their transparency in recent years, the online application process remains notoriously opaque. In 2018, job seekers can expect more visibility into both the application process and the status of job applications in real time.
Trend #3: Tapping Employee Passion Through Role Experimentation
More companies are creating ways to support employee aspirations outside the common vertical trajectory within a company through role experimentation. By establishing clearer pathways for internal lateral job moves, companies can tap into the changing skills and passions of their workforce, help reduce turnover, and do a better job of matching proven talent with their most productive role inside an organization.
Trend #4: Smoothing Out Bumps in Mobile Job Search
“Although mobile job search is on the rise, mobile job application experiences remain painful for most job seekers,” Chamberlain writes.
The main reason, according to the report, is that existing applicant tracking systems (ATSs) were built in a bygone era, making applying for a job from a mobile device cumbersome. Mobile apply is therefore ripe for overhaul in 2018.
Trend #5: The Changing Face of Job Creation in America
Job creation in 2018 is being driven not only by innovations in tech, which will continue to expand within traditionally non-tech industries, but by significant demographic shifts. An aging Baby Boomer population, for example, is driving the growth of home healthcare aides, registered nurses, medical assistants, and nursing assistants.
Meanwhile, many traditional jobs that cannot be automated easily in the near term, such as restaurant waiters, janitors, construction laborers, customer service representative, landscapers, truck drivers, and maintenance workers, will continue to grow and be core sources of employment.