While the recent jobs report showed an increase in the U.S. unemployment rate and lackluster jobs growth, an increasing proportion of employers are expressing concerns over finding sufficient talent. For example, recent data from Personiv found that an eye-opening 83% of senior leaders in the accounting and finance fields report a talent shortage, a jump of 13% just in the past year.
Workers vs. Talent: An Important Distinction
How can this be? How can the labor market be seeing both an increase in unemployment and a lack of talent? Well, it comes down to the distinction between workers and talent. Even when there may be a glut of workers, that doesn’t mean those workers have the skills and experiences that are most in demand among employers.
Here are some of the specific data points from the Personiv report.
- 83% of senior leaders say there’s a talent shortage, up from 70% in 2022 and 63% in 2020. Decreased team efficiency and increased stress levels are leading to higher turnover, further widening the talent gap.
- 60% of all senior leaders and 67% of CFOs said they’ll need to hire staff accountants in the year ahead. Financial impacts are becoming more significant due to a lack of accounting employees, resulting in incorrect reporting numbers and lost wages from overworked or underqualified staff. In fact, Gartner recently reported that one-third of accountants make “at least a few financial errors every week” because of capacity constraints.
- Hiring is taking longer than ever before: the average timeline for job listing to hire time being 44 days, with difficult to fill positions taking as long as 120 days. While competitive salaries are certainly a factor for talent, the two most important factors employees are searching for include positive company culture and work-life balance. This means they’re more likely to leave if there isn’t enough support in the role they’re in.
Reconciling the Disconnect
The seeming disconnect between recent jobs report data and survey responses from finance and accounting leaders expressing concerns over a lack of talent illustrates a key point when it comes to the labor market: workers are not commodities. Just because there is an increased supply of labor generally does not mean that labor will meet the needs of all employers, many of whom require specific skills and expertise.
Lin Grensing-Pophal is a Contributing Editor at HR Daily Advisor.