Despite rash of layoffs, employees remain confident going into 2023

Dive Brief:

• Despite weeks of layoff news from Amazon to the media industry, most employers remain bullish on hiring and workers are still confident they can find jobs, Monster’s 2023 Work Watch Report revealed.
• Monster’s survey found 92% of responding employers plan to hire this year, with 48% backfilling roles and 44% expanding. Almost all said they were confident they would find the right workers for the roles. Employees also remain confident on the whole, though slightly less confident they will find work than in 2022 (64% compared to 75% last year).
• Worker well-being remains an issue, however. Employees seem to be financially strapped, with 73% saying they planned to take on additional jobs to increase their income. More than half also reported burnout, and 70% said they were dealing with staffing shortages. More than one-third said they thought about quitting several times a week.

Dive Insight:

The circumstances surrounding the economic downturn have made it perplexing to many. While top companies in tech and other industries have engaged in mass layoffs over the past several months, hiring still remains strong, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows. This may be due to a continually tight labor market driven primarily by an aging population, an Indeed economist told HR Dive in November.

But while employees may not need to worry too much about staying employed — or finding a new job in the event of a layoff — the issue of burnout is rearing its head again. Burnout received a great deal of attention in the pandemic’s immediate aftermath, leading in large part to the Great Resignation. Employers and HR departments responded by boosting mental health benefits, increasing PTO and bumping pay, among other strategies.

The effects of the Great Resignation appear to be lingering, however, with nearly half of employer respondents to Monster’s survey saying they plan to hire to backfill empty roles — more than plan to hire for expansion. Extra work from the vacancies appears to be falling on the shoulders of current employees, with 72% of workers saying they’d been asked to work additional hours outside of their contracted hours.

Benefits like generous PTO often don’t address burnout when workers are under heavy demand to perform. Rather, workers themselves say they want options like more flexibility, a four-day workweek or simply a reduced workload.