A record number of U.S. hiring managers expect a challenging year ahead. This news comes from recent data from The Harris Poll commissioned by Express Employment Professionals.
The survey found that 92% of managers foresee stumbling blocks in 2024 — the highest percentage since the inception of the survey in 2020.
The top challenges:
- Finding qualified candidates (53%)
- Increased competition in the job market (29%)
- Available talent pool not matching company’s needs (27%)
- Company’s pay not being competitive (22%)
These setbacks come in tandem with other problems. More than 4 in ten hiring managers (42%) report that their company cannot fill open positions. The most common cause for this is a lack of applicants, as was the case in 2023 and 2022.Â
Additionally, more than half of managers (60%) report that more employees are asking for a raise in salary or wages, due to an increase in the cost of living. Millennials are most likely to have asked for a raise (54%), followed by Gen Z (44%), Gen X (34%), and boomers (25%). To accommodate this, 75% of companies plan to increase wages this year.
