We are optimists by nature here at ECLARO, so with the sun having set on the summer solstice we focus not on the fact that each day will be getting “shorter,” but rather on the fact that it’s the first full Friday of summer—and that means a hot new edition of Five on Friday!
So, with facts as our focus, we’re happy to share a quintet of numbers that the ECLARO team found notable of late, along with some insights and ideas on what they may mean for anyone pondering just how to find the Right People to propel their business forward…
4% U.S. Unemployment Rate, the first time that number has hit 4% since January 2022, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics numbers from the end of May.
Yes, that crept up from 3.9 the month prior, up from 3.8 the month before that, but for many industries and employers, the practical unemployment number is actually much lower than that 4% might suggest on the surface.
“As a rule of thumb, the unemployment rate for college graduates in the U.S. is roughly half the overall unemployment rate,” ECLARO Co-Founder Paul Sheridan notes. “So that’s around 2%, based on that number. Basically, there’s little to no unemployment in that group, which means that finding the Right People for key roles across industries remains a challenge for many companies.”
41% of Chief Human Resource Officers who expect to increase their hiring over the next six months—according to The Conference Board CHRO Confidence Index for the second quarter. This number is up from 36% for the first quarter of 2024, but beyond that 5% bump it indicates to us that the challenge businesses face in filling key roles is not going to get any easier to solve.
“The simple law of supply and demand has a powerful impact on being able to find top talent to join any company,” says ECLARO Co-Founder Tom Sheridan. “As more and more businesses look to augment their staffs over the next six months, they are going to find that the way they used to source talent might need to change. Augmenting your staff may, for example, mean finding an offshore solution—but you never want to sacrifice quality when you outsource. We’ve spent decades not only helping our clients build their businesses with custom outsourcing solutions, but we’ve built ECLARO in exactly the same way.”
12% of all tech job postings in May that required AI skills.
“AI is obviously one of the hot-button topics in staffing right now,” Paul says. “But it is important to note that every role, not just those historically called ‘technology’ roles, is feeling the impact of AI—or will be very soon!
“One question that everybody should ask themselves—and this is whether you are looking for a new job, have a position that you never want to leave, are looking for that first job or anywhere in between—is, How am I building skills that will help me do my current job in a different way, more effectively or more efficiently, by adopting relevant AI knowledge and skills?”
$145,000 is the median salary for IT professionals, an increase of 3.6% in 2023, based on a recent report by InformationWeek.
But for businesses looking for top IT talent, that number may actually be underestimating things—particularly when you add in the other costs of hiring them onto your team, and then comparing that number with what you would be paying with a custom outsourcing and offshoring solution like ECLARO’s unique ECAPTIVE offering.
“If you add in benefits and other corporate costs that are covered in what we provide, the cost for a company would be an estimated $190,000 to $200,000,” Paul says. “If you divide that 200K by 2,000 hours worked per year, that comes out to a cost of $100 per hour. Working with ECLARO, the all-in cost of that same IT professional, with the same skills and ability to help a company in that role, would be about $32.”
54% of workers say they would refuse an attractive job offer if they had a bad experience during the interview process, according to a report by Boston Consulting Group, The Network and The Stepstone Group.
“The candidate experience begins even before you may know you’re going to be looking to hire somebody,” Tom says. “Everything from your company’s online reputation to how long a candidate waits to hear from somebody after applying for a job to the way a recruiter phrases a follow-up email—it can influence the decision a job candidate will ultimately make.
“Making sure that every candidate has an outstanding experience through every phase of the hiring process is paramount for us here at ECLARO,” Tom adds. “When we say the Right People are the Answer, we know that applies to our talent acquisition experts being the Right People to help every job seeker connect with the right career in the right way.”