Discussion Paper

How to Get the (High-Skilled) Workers?

Abstract: Over the past year, the labor market has been extremely tight, with record high job openings and historically low unemployment. So, it's no surprise that firms have struggled to find workers. To overcome hiring challenges, firms have been using various strategies, the most common of which is wage increases. Those strategies may be paying off to some extent: Our Fifth District business surveys suggest that the worst of the challenge finding workers has passed. Nonetheless, firms are still reporting difficulties, and our most recent survey revealed a notable shift in the type of workers firms are having the toughest time hiring. Firms now report that it is relatively difficult to hire mid-to-high skilled workers, whereas earlier in the year they were struggling to hire low-to-mid skilled workers.

Keywords: labor market; high-skilled workers; hiring frictions;

Bibliographic Information

Provider: Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond

Part of Series: Regional Matters

Publication Date: 2022-10-06