By: Ron Villareal, Imprimis Staffing Vice President

I had the good fortune of attending the 2014 Economic Series presented by Dr. Erica Groshen, Commissioner for the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Dr. Groshen was invited by the Dallas Regional Chamber to update local business leaders on the labor market. I know, it all sounds very clinical and quite boring except is it was anything, but that. Dr. Groshen did an amazing job of taking a 50-slide deck and breathing some life and understanding into it.

Below are a few of the notes we wanted to share:

• 2007-2009 recession lasted 18 months and nationally lost 8.6M jobs, 2001 recession lasted 8 months
• Nationally we are only 113,000 jobs short of pre-recession numbers and should make those up by end of June 2014
• National Recovery is being led by the private sector industries of Education/Health Services and Leisure and Hospitality
• Texas is ranked #3 in percentage of job growth
• The current National unemployment rate (April 2014) is 6.3%, still 1.9% above pre-recession rate of 4.4% (May 2007)
• Nationally the Unemployment rate is down 3.7% since peak of the recession
• Labor Force participation is down sharply as of April 2014 it was at 62.8%, Labor Force participation is defined as the sum of people working and trying to work
• Factors for Labor Force participation decline include demographic factors like Baby-Boomers retiring or changing behavior like women staying home, young people more focused on school and people discouraged about labor market
• Long-term unemployment (27+ weeks) remains historically high, in 1990 – <10%,  2009 – 45%, 2014 – 35%
• Unemployed Job seekers per job, in 2009 – 6.7, in March 2014 – 2.6
• In Texas the unemployment rate for a majority of counties is below the National average
• Dallas’ growth also being led by the private sector industries of Education/Health Services and Leisure and Hospitality
• The growth of the Texas labor market is trending better than the rest of the U.S since the end of the recession
• Skillsets in demand are in Healthcare and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) jobs

All in all good information but there are still some lingering questions:

Why is the economic growth so moderate?
This recession was caused by a “financial crisis” which shakes everyone’s confidence in both government and the economy. It takes time for people to recover from their distrust in the government, financial entities and the economy.

What’s missing to make a robust labor market?
A labor force participation rebound, faster net growth in payroll jobs, the birth of large new companies and hiring in sectors other than Education/Health Services and Leisure and Hospitality.

Texas is a very competitive job market. Baby-boomers are retiring and candidates are getting multiple offers which means if you are a business leader, an owner or someone who makes hiring decisions, and you find that person you need, hire them quickly or someone else will!