Labor Day 2022; with the economic recovery in full swing labor in the United States riding high.
WWL spoke with University of New Orleans Economics Professor Dr. Walter Lane about the state of labor at this time in history.
According to Dr. Lane, labor is in the driver's seat for the first time in a long time.
"Well, right now, we have a big need for workers," Lane says. "For quite a while now, the number of jobs has been exceeding the number of people looking for work. So labor's in kind of the controlling position right now."
Dr. Lane says labor is driving the workplace revolution that's bringing higher wages to employees. And even though wages are on the rise, they're not keeping pace with the rate of inflation.
"We're all seeing inflation that these wages just haven't been keeping up. Because of the shortage of the job market, I don't see any retrenching in the wage gains. In fact I think it's to continue going in the same direction," Lane explains.
Lane also says the highest wage growth is in the lowest sector of the job market—blue collar, service and hospitality.
"Right now I'd say firms can't find enough skilled employees to fill their positions," Lane states. "We're also having trouble filling unskilled positions as well. Even getting people for restaurants and hotels, the type of things we have a lot of in New Orleans. They've been having trouble getting people to fill those kinds of positions as well."
Despite inflation and other issues, the state of labor in the country is robust according to Lane.
"There's been a little bit of an increase in the labor force," Lane says. "During the pandemic, we had a big shrinking of the labor force. People just left the labor force. I think there's some indication that people are starting to come back—and that's good news."
Now is the time to look for a new job.