Leadership in Today’s Tight Labor Market

Updated March 8, 2024

With low unemployment rates and very small growth of the working-age population in the United States, businesses are struggling with employee retention and recruiting. I’ve been studying the issue since I looked at the demographic trends over a decade ago and predicted today’s tight labor market. For readers’ convenience, my Forbes articles on the subject are listed below. The three key strategies for dealing with this problem are increasing employee productivity, improving retention, and better recruiting, in that order.

 

The Problem of Tight Labor

The Scariest Chart For Business In The Coming Decade: Workers Not Available

Tight Labor Market: Even Worse Based On New Census Projections

More Retirements, Less Immigration Will Clobber Businesses Needing Employees

New Census Projections Show Tight U.S. Labor Market For Years

Increasing Employee Productivity

Strategies For Increasing Employee Productivity With Better Tools

Strategies For Improving Labor Productivity Through Employee Training

Strategies For Improving Employee Productivity Through Manager Training

Employee Turnover/Retention

Leadership in Today’s Tight Labor Market: Turnover

Companies Need To Know The Dollar Cost Of Employee Turnover

New Evidence That Low Employee Turnover Correlates With High Profits

Retain More Employees With Stay Interviews

Hiring To Improve Employee Retention: Learning From Stay Interviews

Promoting Wrong People Hurts Employee Retention and Productivity

Don’t Delay That Performance Review

Hardest Performance Reviews Are For Good Employees

Rule No. 1 For Dealing With Millennials In The Workplace

Pay Raises from Tax Cuts Are Fake Generosity

Employee Retention Through Training Opportunities: Meet The Business Owner Doing It

Retaining and Recruiting Older Workers: Tight Labor Market Solution

Recruiting

3 Steps To Hire With Lower Education Requirements: Coping With The Tight Labor Market

How to Find Employees From Businesses That Are Cutting Back

Competing for Employees With Google, Amazon and the other Tech Giants

Young Employees and Work-Life Balance

Why You Should Hire Video Game Players

Hiring Job Applicants You Previously Rejected

What Business Leaders Need To Learn From Harrison Ford And Other Older Workers

Management and Unions

Strikes, The UAW And The Prospect For Unions Across The Economy

Unions And Stress—What Businesses Should Learn (June 22, 2022)

Starbucks With Labor Unions: Lessons For Other Business (February 22, 2022)