As economies recover and labor markets continue to shift in response to any number of forces, most U.S. businesses find themselves facing a massive talent shortage. There aren’t enough people to do all the jobs, or there aren’t enough people who want to do the available jobs. Economists will analyze the current labor market for years to come, but what we know for certain in 2021 is that it’s hard, bordering on impossible, to attract and hire the same workers who were impacted by job loss during the pandemic. Many factors are contributing to this issue,1 but it is clear from our research that workers care greatly about job security and both fair and competitive compensation. If employees are laid off, they are unlikely to trust the company that let them go.
We asked all respondents if their jobs changed over the past year, and over a third of workers (37.5%) changed job responsibilities during the pandemic. Of those who changed responsibilities, our research found:
