Worker frustration remains palpable despite strong labor market

While headline employment figures remain strong, worker frustration is mounting below the surface. A majority say they would accept a 20% pay cut for better work-life balance, especially younger generations. But opportunities to switch jobs are dwindling - quit rates are at a 3-year low. While headline labor markets paint a rosy picture, educated white collar employees are seeing a different reality on the ground.

Many people now work multiple jobs to get by, with women taking on side gigs at the highest rate since the 1990s. College graduates are also increasingly taking any gigs they can find, with some school administrators HCI has interviewed admitting sub-60% full-time employment rates for new grads. Job searches have also lengthened  as ghost positions proliferate, applications per job triple, and markets try to absorb waves of qualified employees from blue chip layoffs.

“People hear that wages are going up, people hear that it’s really easy to get a job, and yet that’s not what they’re finding—themselves, their children, their neighbors.

— Jane Oates, a senior policy adviser at the workforce development nonprofit WorkingNation, on US labor markets

So while the job market hasn't crashed as feared, workers feel squeezed by fewer chances to advance and inflexible demands. The veneer of a hot labor market glosses over their daily struggles. Strong macro statistics provide cold comfort to those facing increasingly long odds just to find a suitable job.

So while the job market hasn't crashed as feared, workers feel squeezed by fewer chances to advance and inflexible demands. The veneer of a hot labor market glosses over their daily struggles. Strong macro statistics provide cold comfort to those facing increasingly long odds just to find a suitable job.