Ten Interesting Facts About the Changing Workforce
Improving workforces is a never-ending goal for all businesses. The current trends indicate that new-age employees are altering the established workplace equilibrium and shaping new ones since the COVID-19 pandemic has upended the long-sustained status quo. Countries worldwide have been forced to adapt on the go and boost digitization initiatives. As a result, they are leap-frogging in technologies and increasingly adopting new ways of working. Besides, employees now desire flexible workplaces that offer them better work-life balance. These changes to employer-employee relations have intensified the battle to identify and attract talent.
Moreover, talent isn’t what it used to be ten years ago; several roles, skills, and job titles of tomorrow are unknown to us today. So how can organizations prepare for a future that is difficult to imagine? In what ways will your talent need to change? What are the best ways to attract, retain and motivate employees you need and how does it affect human resources practices and processes? These questions need answers.
Workforces directly impact your bottom line; the better employees feel, the more likely they will remain productive and generate value for your business. The ongoing tech-led disruptions underline that this isn’t the time to wait for events to unfold. Instead, you must understand and envisage the future to prepare for it. This blog outlines how the workplace may evolve over the next decade.
Workforce Trends in 2023
We’ve compiled ten interesting facts and statistics about the evolving workforce that you should know, whether or not you’re working remotely, from a hybrid setup or a traditional, brick-and-mortar office.
- A recent Statista Research reveals that there are around 70.4 million freelancers in the U.S. Moreover, the numbers will likely reach 79.6 million by 2025 and 90.1 million by 2028. Plus, an estimate suggests that 50.9 percent of the total workforce in the U.S. will freelance by 2028.
- A recent study by the U.S. Census Bureau estimates that the nation’s 73 million baby boomers are aging, which will boost revenues for industries designed to help them manage their later years. A projection suggests that there will be 83.9 million people of age 65 and more by 2050, almost twice as much as in 2012. As a result, 1 out of 5 residents will attain retirement age by 2050.
- Statista suggests that the number of mobile workers in the United States will increase to 93.5 million by 2024 from 78.5 million in 2020. The source defines mobile workers as those who have been assigned tasks or workflows that require mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets.
- According to Gallup’s composite engagement rate for 2020, 36% of American employees were engaged in their work and workplace. However, the percentage of actively disengaged employees in the U.S. increased marginally from 14% in 2020 to 15% through June 2021. The finding is distressing for enterprises as disengaged employees are usually less productive.
- According to the Annual U.S. National Salary Budget Survey, salary increases will likely grow by just over 4 percent in 2023, which is less than half of the current annual inflation rate of 8.5 percent. Forty-eight percent of U.S. employers are planning higher year-over-year salary budgets for 2023, continuing with the upswing that began in 2022. An even more promising revelation for American workers: a quarter of employers plan to increase salaries by 5–7 percent in 2023.
- Estimates indicate that one in four U.S. workers is a baby boomer, which amounts to a total of 41 million baby boomer employees. The trend of mass retirement will lead to a more significant workforce gap as companies scramble to fill vacant positions. As these workers usually hold higher-level management positions due to extensive experience, replacing them will be challenging, and many businesses will turn to recruiters for top talent.
- As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, 7.7 percent of professionals teleworked or worked from home for pay in April 2022. This number increased to 35.4 percent in May 2022. Furthermore, 8.4 percent of employed women teleworked, compared to 7.1 percent of men. Over the past months, women have teleworked more than their male counterparts because of the pandemic.
- More than 4 million U.S. workers are estimated to have quit their jobs in June 2022. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, almost 11 million jobs still need to be fulfilled due to large-scale employee turnover. One key reason for such a trend is that strong values drive today’s workforces. Hence, they wish to work for organizations with a purpose beyond profit — one that also helps them develop leadership skills.
- According to a new study by Deloitte and the Manufacturing Institute, 2.1 million U.S. manufacturing jobs will likely go unfilled by 2030 due to the skills gap. The cost of unfilled jobs could potentially value US$1 trillion by 2030. Plus, approximately two million jobs will remain unfilled in the manufacturing sector by 2025 because of the accelerating retirement rates of current workers and an expected expansion in manufacturing in the coming years.
- Healthcare and tech are among the fastest-growing sectors of the U.S. economy. For instance, cyber security engineers, data scientists, cloud engineers, behavioral health technicians, robotics engineers, sales development representatives, and artificial intelligence specialists are the most in-demand jobs in 2022.
Conclusion
Employers are increasingly stressing employee satisfaction as the U.S. workforce shifts from baby boomers toward younger generations. In addition, employees expect self-service modules that offer them greater flexibility and control over their daily schedules. Thus, organizations must leverage a robust solution that provides a comprehensive approach toward knowledge workforce management to effectively manage people, projects, skills and time.
With a unified and integrated data platform, Replicon’s Knowledge Workforce Management Solution eliminates silos and bridges gaps between business functions in an organization. Global wage and hour law compliance controls overtime, reduces labor costs, and increases payroll efficiency. More than 2,500 customers across 80+ countries use Replicon’s workforce management solution to gain a single source of truth for people, projects, skills and time.
