STATE WIDE–You may have heard of the great resignation. Many people are quitting their jobs, sometimes good-paying, career-type jobs. It might also be called the great reassessment.
Even though Indiana’s unemployment rate is at 2.7 percent, the lowest in recent times, nearly two million Hoosiers don’t have jobs and most of them (95 percent) don’t want to work, according to Fred Payne, commissioner of Indiana’s Dept. of Workforce Development.
Just under 20,000 people in Indiana are looking for a job and are ready to work. That’s a small number compared to the number of jobs available.
“With more than 150,000 jobs openings posted and a record number of new jobs coming, we need to ensure that all Hoosier students and workers can and ultimately will fill them,” said Gov. Eric Holcomb, on Jan. 11, in his State of the State speech.
But, with so few workers available, the onus is on employers to get people to work.
“Employers are having to rethink job flexibility. They’re having to rethink pay,” said Payne, talking to WISH TV. “They’re having to rethink the ways they recruit people and how they retain people.”
About 4.5 million people quit their jobs voluntarily in November across the country, many reassessing their own career goals and adjusting accordingly.
“Employers are getting extremely creative because they’re trying to meet employees where they are in this particular job market,” said Payne.
Holcomb promised the state will get more aggressive in pairing potential employees with jobs, which will be necessary if the state is to continue to be able to lure new manufacturing and tech companies.
