🎉 Job applications are surging!

^Advertise

Read time: 2.5 minutes

Good Afternoon Party People! 🎉

Ever wonder about the best cities for work-life balance? We’ve got you covered! If you’re looking for a new opportunity in a new town, make sure you read till the end!

PARTY PLAN 🎉

✈️ Job applications are surging

🤨 The skills employers really want

🌆 Best cities for work-life balance

And, of course, MEMES!

MEME OF THE DAY

JOB MARKET

Job Applications are Surging!

The number of job applications is growing four times faster than job openings, creating an “employer’s market,” according to Workday’s Global Workforce Report.

It may seem like great news for employers thinking they can hand-select the best candidates now, but it’s not that simple.

The report also found that voluntary turnover of “high-potential employees” is up in 75% of the industries tracked. Turnover of high-value employees was particularly high in communications, media and technology, education, and nonprofit sectors.

What created this paradoxical HR problem where hiring managers are receiving a flood of applications but can’t hang on to their best existing employees?!

Workday says it’s because companies and employees have both raised their standards.

72% of leaders have raised the bar for qualifications and experience, but top talent is still looking for better opportunities at a higher rate than in 2023, despite the challenging hiring environment.

The key factors motivating employees to stay in their roles include their growth, belief in a clear strategy, and fair compensation.

One Workday executive says the solution for companies is to prioritize internal mobility. He also advised companies to remove unnecessary workplace barriers that prevent good work, including “useless meetings, cumbersome processes, and limited autonomy.”

His message to job seekers: be selective.

WORKPLACE

The Skills Employers Really Want

Another banger from the Indeed Hiring Lab just put together a list of the most common preferred skills in job postings.

(AI skills aren’t even in the top 10)

Here are the highlights from the report:

• 1-in-10 skills mentioned in US job postings is an elementary technical skill, and almost 1-in-5 postings mention basic computer literacy.

• Human skills are also in demand, with communication the single most frequently listed skill in postings.

• AI skills are a small but growing share of the labor market.

• Accounting, administrative assistance, logistic support, and human resources are the job sectors most likely to require basic digital skills.

• Job postings in the U.S. and Canada are more than twice as likely to require computer skills than job postings in France and the UK. They don’t care about computers across the pond, innit?

• Many high-level roles like software development and physicians & surgeons don’t mention basic computing skills, so the data may be a bit skewed.

• Share of job postings mentioning AI skills came in at only 2-3% in the four countries analyzed.

Top 10 preferred skills on job postings (add these to your LinkedIn):

• Communication (32%)

• Customer service (17%)

• Computer skills (11%)

• English (10%) *probably don’t need to add this one to your LinkedIn

• Leadership (10%)

• Organizational skills (8%)

• Microsoft Office (8%)

• Management (8%)

• Sales (8%)

• Microsoft Excel (8%)

LOCATION

The BEST Cities for Work-Life Balance

You can live in the most beautiful place on Earth and still not be happy — or be able to enjoy your surroundings.

If you’re spending long days at work, only to return home and be stressed about work, it can be hard to enjoy where you live. 

With RTO mandates becoming more popular among companies that let employees work remotely for the past four years, selecting a good place to live is just as important as selecting the right company.

According to a popular Reddit work forum, over 260 cities were listed and the debate for which ones had the best work-life balance culture was on.

Here are the top 6 cities to work, according to thousands of Reddit users:

• New Orleans, Louisiana

• Denver, Colorado

• Albuquerque, New Mexico

• Portland, Oregon

• San Diego, California

• Salt Lake City, Utah

This got us curious. What are the best cities that Office Partiers have worked in? We’ll post the results next week.

GET IN FRONT OF 13,000+ HR LEADERS, FOUNDERS, AND RECRUITERS

Advertise with The Office Party and promote your company to decision-makers at top companies. Get in touch.

LET’S HEAR IT…