At the end of each year, as usual, recruitment firms, HR organizations, and job portals across the globe have collated the job market data for 2021 and released their annual reports about hiring trends to watch out for in 2022.
Here's a look at a few of these trends from various reports that job seekers may find helpful.
1. Investment in Recruitment Technology
According to SHRM, recruiters are increasingly relying on Artificial Intelligence to screen through thousands of resumes to identify the right candidates. Also, automating workflows via technology like apps for employees onboarding to improve the efficiency of the talent acquisition process is on the rise.
As a job seeker, you need to adapt to this change by ensuring your resume has the right keywords and isn't filtered out by AI algorithms. Spending an extra minute editing your resume to include the keywords used in the job description would greatly improve your chances of making it to round two.
Otherwise, you might miss out on good opportunities despite having the perfect skill set and job experience as there is no discerning HR personnel scanning your credentials on the other end.
2. There's an Acute Labor Shortage
According to a workplace trends report for 2022 by Glassdoor, the jobs scenario in 2021 was marked by a constant churn in employees and acute labor shortages. Not just companies, even recruiting teams are short-staffed and desperate to fill open roles. Aggravating this state of affairs is the struggle to retain old talent, as per SHRM's research. As a result, companies are deploying new strategies like promoting internal mobility and relaxing workplace rules regarding flexibility to retain valued employees.
If you're looking for a job change, it would be a good idea to seek a lateral move within your organization first. You can ask for a pay raise along with an upgrade to a more senior position in the process. This is an excellent time for fresh graduates to get a toehold in the job market, start at a higher pay package than was possible earlier, and get perks otherwise reserved for senior talent.
3. Uptick in Negotiations for Higher Salaries
Talented and informed candidates are well aware of their market value, as 73% of recruiters report increasing negotiations for higher salaries, according to the SHRM study linked above. Perks and benefits have also expanded beyond the traditional healthcare package to include parenting leave, family planning, child care support, and flexibility.
This is an opportune moment for employees to seek better work prospects, ask for higher salaries, make that long-overdue career change, or start afresh in a new field of work. Of course, you can also push for benefits and perks tailored to your requirements.
4. Remote Jobs Are Here to Stay
Companies can no longer afford to lose out on talent in remote locations. As a fallout of the post-pandemic work era, recruiters are making remote work offers with competitive salaries to talent across geographic boundaries, according to the Glassdoor workplace trends report cited above.
While this might seem like a win-win situation at first, employees should watch out for potential negative fallouts like companies reducing pay scales to level the pay gap across geographic compensation zones. Also, an increase in competition from talent across the globe might eventually lead to lower salaries.
The good news is that you can now work from remote locations for companies that pay top dollar or use these opportunities as leverage to ask for a hike from your local employer.
Good Times for Employees
Hiring trends for 2022 indicate an acute shortage of talent vs. an increasing avalanche of job roles swamping the market. So this is an excellent time for employees across the globe to grab better job opportunities, secure better pay packages, ask for additional benefits and perks, and ride out this wave before it fizzles out.