Union strikes from Detroit to Hollywood have proven the power of workers and turned the tide after decades of a weakened labor movement, but the signs are increasing in the nationwide job market that the post-pandemic era of worker control over wage growth and job opportunities is coming to an end.
All year long, and back into 2022, the challenge of finding qualified workers for open positions has been among the biggest for companies, and wage growth among the most-watched inflationary forces at the Fed and within C-suites. Now 60% of chief financial officers surveyed by CNBC say that it has become easier to find and hire qualified workers for open positions compared to a year ago. That marks a 25-percentage point increase from a quarter ago, when 35% of CFOs held that view, a magnitude of change quarter over quarter that is rare in this quarterly survey series.
There was already a sign in the Q3 CNBC CFO Council survey that a shift was underway in this view of the balance of power between workers and employers from within the C-suite, with 50% of CFOs saying at that time conditions in the labor market were “about the same” — i.e., it was at least no longer getting harder to find and hire skilled labor. But now it’s tipped. And last quarter, there were still 15% of CFOs saying that it remained harder than a year ago to find workers, a view that’s all but gone from the survey group.
Hill Street Studios | Stone | Getty Images
The CNBC CFO Council survey is a quarterly sampling of views from top financial officers at major corporations, which includes responses from 30 CFOs recorded between Nov. 14-Nov. 24.
The CFO data is in line with the mounting headlines this year that the Great Resignation has ended, and the hard data and sentiment indicators from the labor market showing that the Federal Reserve’s interest rate hikes are cooling things down, from job growth to wage growth. The latest nonfarm payroll report showed a resilient economy still adding jobs, but at a…
Read the full article here