Labor Market in 2019: Face the Challenges!

Labor market in 2019 - challenges and solutionsEvery beginning of the year is an opportunity for reflection and predictions. 2018 was a tough year on the labor market, employers searched for potential employees, and often had to compromise and train them at the workplace. On the other hand, despite the increased job offer, the candidates have complained about low options when it comes to moving towards a new job that meets all their expectations.

As the previous year, 2019 is expected to be tough for companies that need specialists. The battle for candidates continues, especially in the context of a decreasing number of people to deliver immediately after employment.The lack of the education system, the growing number of professionally trained Romanians who choose to emigrate, the notable difference between generations (the Z generation begins to enter the field of work – they have an increased familiarity with the internet and digital media and demonstrate a low stability in terms of professional relationships, according to the sociologists’ conclusions) make the recruitment mission increasingly difficult.

Companies are focused on education and in-house training

The employer is in the position to fill the role of the school and continuously prepare new employees. Thus, winning companies will focus on offering on-the-job training. This approach is also considered a successful one in terms of motivating any type of employee through continuous development and of employees’ retention.

Business News Daily writes about the training offer as mandatory in the company’s recruitment package in 2019.

Tough salary negotiations for “hot” positions

When it comes to attracting seniors and specialists, companies are forced to fight hard. Besides the effort made in developing the employer brand and offering various benefits (classical, such as meal tickets or medical subscriptions, but also adapted to the needs of the present – flexible program, remote work, a larger number of days of rest leave, fitness subscriptions etc.), intense negotiations will be held at the wage level.

More and more employees are looking for a new job with a better salary and an optimal work environment.

In hot demand: employees who solve problems as they appear

Who does not want specialists to develop continuously and to meet the challenges that arise at the business level? Whatever this sound as a cliché for the labor market forecast of 2019, the need to adapt to changes and problems generated by them is increasingly acute.

Flexibility above all

Remote work, flexible schedules, part-time contracts, any form of employee’s feelings of greater autonomy represent an asset of the company that wants to attract valuable people.

Working from home becomes an option for several employers, especially in the context that employees who benefit from such a contract can and will be monitored closely by technology, Forbes notes.

Blue collars – Few and precious craftsmen

The period during which the vocational schools were closed, the diploma rush (“the rise and fall” of the private faculties), the disinterest of the younger generations for the crafts still needed in the market (plumbers, electricians, welders, painters, mechanics) and, last but not least, emigration have led to a shortage of craftsmen on the labor market. The generation educated before and in the early ’90s begins to withdraw from the scene, and afterwards the offer is getting weaker.

Official, the national unemployment rate was 3.32% at the end of November 2018, down from the previous month and the previous year, according to ANOFM.

2019 will be a difficult year for employers who need, more than ever, to be anchored in reality and to adapt to the digital age and to the candidates they are addressing. A viable option remains the outsourcing of recruitment processes to specialized companies, while the efforts of the internal HR team focus on a good marketing position and employer brand development.

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