Companies and compensation departments will continue to suffer from Post Traumatic Salary Disorder several years after the Great Recession. Reluctance to adjust base salaries higher for their own staff and offers to potential new employees will lead to an uptick in turnover and vacancies that remain open for longer periods. The employment market for global trade professionals is strong and will only improve this year. Trade compliance, supply chain management, logistics and transportation all will benefit as the unemployment rate continues to drop into 4 percent territory.
The job market will be the best in our lifetime for mobile candidates. Trade professionals willing to relocate will have numerous opportunities to consider. There are a finite number of local opportunities within commuting distance … especially as you move up in title and income.
Those that open their geographic parameters will increase their career options exponentially.
Firms would prefer to hire local talent to keep expenses down but will offer different levels of relocation packages depending on the degree of difficulty to fill the position.
Companies will attempt to tighten their own candidate selection process without diluting the job requirements. Length of time to fill a position will increase as three to four months will be common. Company stakeholders will become choosier … and so will the candidates.
Base salaries are not ready to jump yet. Firms will design attractive “all in” packages that are incentivized around bonus programs, PTO and stock options at the publicly traded firms.
Salaries in the trade community will no longer have large cost-of-living adjustments by regional or local markets. Salaries will blend into a national market. It will be an extraordinary year.
The cure for Post Traumatic Salary Disorder is in sight!
Bill Conroy, Executive Director, Tyler Search