NEW NORMAL - 2022 Career Predictions You Need To Know About
Posted 25th January 2022 • Written by Robin Ryan on forbes.com • • • • •
Last year was a fabulous time to conduct a job search. Is 2022 going to be the same? Worse? Or better? That is an important question many workers are asking themselves. Expect the new year to be another great one for job hunters. As you ponder your career and path for 2022, here are my predictions of what’s ahead.
Higher salaries are motivating people to change jobs.
The latest American Staffing Association Workforce Monitor online survey conducted by The Harris Poll revealed that 63% of respondents said pay will drive their decision to change jobs. Salary is more important than remote work, flexible work hours, and benefits/perks. The allure of higher wages is a strong carrot to get even happy people to listen to recruiters and choose to move on. Expect aggressive employers to raise their salary offers to attract new talent. But finding that talent will be no easy task for any organization in 2022. Job hunters should use savvy salary negotiation strategies when accepting a new position because the first offer often can be raised simply by asking.
LinkedIn will continue to be a critical career management tool.
As a social networking platform, individuals should cognize the importance of having a fully complete and impressive profile. A Kinsta LinkedIn study found that 122 million individuals were interviewed from their LinkedIn profiles. In addition, 35.5 million had been hired by a person they connected with on the site. LinkedIn itself reports that three people are hired through LinkedIn every minute. If you care about your future, recognize you need to create a complete profile with a strong headline.
Zoom interviews are the new normal.
Convenience and practicality are the primary reasons Zoom interviews are here to stay. Unfortunately, only a few employers will ask job candidates to come to the office next year. Job hunters need to perfect their online presence to secure a new job. Candidates need to show professionalism that is not a part of the typical causal workplace Zoom world. Employers expect you to dress up, display interest, be knowledgeable about their company, and deliver solid answers to an employer’s questions.
Baby boomers will need to fight ageism.
If you are over 55, you need to pay extra attention to potential age discrimination as you job hunt. Employers worry that your best days may be behind you and that mature workers no longer have the drive or skills to excel in the employer’s jobs. In addition, the great resignation of 2020 and 2021 left many Baby Boomers unemployed or forced into retirement. A significant obstacle for boomers is not understanding that recent accomplishments and job results are critical to employers. As a result, many are uncertain about what belongs in a resume and what needs to be left off. For more guidance on creating an appealing resume, read the Forbes article Age Discrimination Worries? Resume Changes You Should Make.
The number of job hunters will increase.
The American Staffing Association survey also noted that 41% of those surveyed are likely to job hunt within 2022. Last year, millions of workers quit their jobs, and most moved on. The trend of having more people job hunt (many employed) will continue. You might want to do some soul searching first to determine if job hunting now is the right move for you. Consider these key questions first to decide if you are ready to move on. Think about: Are you underpaid? (#1 reason people are moving to a new employer.) Are you overworked? Do you like your boss? Is your company doing ok or in trouble? Any layoffs insight? Finally, a critical question is: Are you happy where you are?
One quarter of all professional jobs will be remote by the end of 2022.
Researchers from Ladders, a job search site, have carefully tracked remote work availability from North America’s largest 50,000 employers. Remote opportunities leaped from under 4% of all high-paying jobs before the pandemic to about 9% at the end of 2020 and more than 15% today. The Ladders predicts that 25% of all high-paying jobs will be available remotely within twelve months. This workplace change is even more significant than people think. Ladders CEO Marc Cenedella says, “Hiring practices typically move at a glacial pace, but the pandemic turned up the heat, so we’re seeing a rapid flood of change in this remote workspace.”
Even the strictest employers will allow hybrid jobs.
For example, the New York Times reported that even Wall Street employers known for their demanding work culture that values face time and long hours conceded that employees thrived working from home as evidenced by the fact that these companies earned record profits during the pandemic. However, as they lost many employees who rebelled against the return-to-the-office demand and long commutes, companies have had to change their tune because replacing departed employees has proved challenging.
Job hopping will be strongest amongst Gen-Z and Millennials.
Loyalty will be nonexistent amongst the twentysomethings who will continue to job hop for better money, more growth opportunities, or simply because they don’t like the job they have. When talking to numerous job hunters, Trevor, Gen Z career counseling client, summed up well. He said, “For people my age who are working every day out of their bedroom, attending zoom meetings, answering emails, do we care who we’re doing it for? Why should we? Most of the twentysomethings saw too many people get laid off, or they themselves lost their job. And they had a lot of struggles with getting hired during Covid. So as a result, we are loyal only to ourselves.”
Finding talented employees will remain a challenge.
Talent acquisition executives say that hiring professionals and executives will be a supreme source of frustration for employers. Expect recruiters to spend even more time on LinkedIn to uncover and poach qualified candidates. The number of recruiting hours spent on LinkedIn to search for new hires will continue to increase. LinkedIn will be the prime spot to get noticed for jobs you haven’t previously applied for.
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