In this edition of HR News You Can Use we review the employment market from two angles.
First, the good general economic news is the that the rate of layoffs has been steadily decreasing for 2016. This reflects continued economic stability and growing demand. There are still some sectors and states that have seen increased job losses.
Second, we review some of the highlights from the recently published State of Startups by First Round. The study shows that the tech founders interviewed are very positive about their futures.
Layoffs Decreasing
The US jobs report was released for November and it showed that the number of layoffs is showing a steady decrease for the year. For November YTD reported layoffs have declined 5.5% versus the same period in 2015.
While the national impact of layoffs is improving there are some sector and states that are showing significant increases versus prior year. The energy (+13%) and computer (+7%) sectors are both showing increases. Not surprisingly, Texas and California are the two states that have been impacted the most by layoffs as a result of heavy concentrations of energy and computer sector jobs.
Tech Startup Sentiment Very Positive
The First Round State of Startups report provided some interesting insights regarding the mindset of the promising entrepreneurs. Some highlights:
- There is a decrease amongst the 700+ start-up founders interviewed on whether they believe that the US economy is in a bubble. In 2015 73% said yes. In 2016 the majority still said yes but the percent decreased to 57%.
- 90% of the entrepreneurs said that now if the best time to start a new company.
- It is interesting to note that engineering was listed as the primary driver of culture at the startups.
- Not surprisingly, all of the firms questioned indicated that they would have increases in hiring for the next year.
- The tech founders were asked to pinpoint the main driver behind women and ethnic minorities being underrepresented in tech. The study reported: “While men and women agreed on some factors, they diverged on others. Men are more likely to blame the pipeline into tech; women place greater emphasis on unconscious bias and lack of role models”.
- A further challenge regarding diversity gains is shown when 61% of the tech founders said that their boards were 100% male.
