I have a couple of clients who have employees that either were looking to get out, or are looking to get out, but are finding that the getting out portion is not as easy as they thought it would be.
There are a number of factors at work here, and they are not typical of what is happening in the job market. But I personally do not believe that the job market is as robust as the President’s administration would have us believe.
It is my understanding that one of them is a highly compensated assistant who while having significant skills, is in a market that has been consolidating for the past decade; thus making a lateral move impossible without a significant pay reduction. It is unfortunate that one can sit for a few years and then be too expensive to make a move. I believe that this one is planning to stay put for the moment.
One of the other employees is another assistant who is looking for broader horizons. They are looking to make a change that they believe will better fulfill them. I personally have only known one case where a client hit the dream job and found it to be the dream they anticipated. But this one is finding that the terms of the dream job do not fit with their expectations. I am assuming that their search continues.
These finding I do not think are too out of place in the current marketplace. The last reported unemployment numbers are as follows for September 2014:
U3 – 5.9%
U-6 – 11.8%
This shows that the U-6 rate is double the reporting rate. To me this is not surprising. There seem to be a number people who seem to hate their job. I am always assuming that they are looking for their next punishment employment.
I have always wondered what would happen to the marketplace if medical benefits were decoupled from the employer. Would people fly out of the door of companies that they despise, but are staying just because they need the medical coverage? Or would there be no movement because the benefits are not the only reason that they do not move? Is it inertia? The world may never know…
For those who may have forgotten here is the U-6 definition. The U6 unemployment rate counts not only people without work seeking full-time employment (the more familiar U-3 rate), but also counts “marginally attached workers and those working part-time for economic reasons.