Texas employers are experiencing less hiring struggles than forty-three other states nationwide, according to a new study.
A 2022 WalletHub study called States Where Employers are Struggling the Most ranking the 50 states and D.C. by their average percentage of job openings found the Lone Star State falls at No.44 — meaning it sports the 8th lowest percentage of unfilled positions.
“The states at the top are those struggling the most,” said WalletHub analyst Jill Gonzalez. “If a state is having a hard time filling job openings, it could be an indication of the fact that the demand for jobs does not meet the supply as far as skills or salaries are concerned.”
The study found Texas’ job openings rate over the last 12 months was 6.02%, which indicates that it is more easily filling positions than states higher on the list, such as No.1 Alaska, whose 12-month rate was 8.14%.
“If a state is easily filling jobs, it can mean that employers are offering good salaries as well as other benefits and/or they have flexible work-from-home policies, among other things,” Gonzalez told The Dallas Express. “To end the trend of high job turnover, employers and employees will need to find common ground on things like benefits offered, work-from-home policies, overall working environments, and flexibility.”
Data for the job openings rate was obtained from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
“It’s important to track hiring trends in order to know how the labor market is recovering after the pandemic,” Gonzalez added. “Hiring trends help people see how the labor market is evolving and if there are any issues with filling certain positions.”
Part of employers’ difficulty filling positions is due to skills mismatch, according to Rochelle Parks-Yancy, full professor of HR management at Texas Southern University’s Jesse H. Jones School of Business.
“Some of the roles in the highest demand — for example, supply chain talent, such as dispatchers and truck drivers — do not have the supply qualified talent to meet the demand,” she said. “It is an opportunity for high schools, trade schools, community colleges, and four-year universities to offer programs that will attract and train talent for those roles.”
Employers who are not able to offer flexibility are seeing a higher resignation rate, according to the data.
“The pandemic has determined the high rate of job turnover,” Gonzalez said in an interview. “This is because a lot of employees did well while working from home and would like to continue to do so to some extent, even if some office time will be required.”
The difference between the rate of job turnover and the ability to fill jobs is the measure of the number of employees who leave their jobs, which is also known as the resignation rate, according to Gonzalez.
“The ability to fill jobs is the opposite,” she said. “If this trend continues, the worst-case scenario would be employers having higher labor costs, which would determine increases in prices. Another negative consequence of this trend could be that consumers will need to lower their expectations in terms of convenience. A labor shortage can lead to fewer items on the shelves or shorter hours for stores.”
