3 Job Market Trends for 2023: What you need to know today.

Thanksgiving is done, including our leftovers, so it’s nearly the end of 2022. Year-end is traditionally a time to look back. But good leaders—and good coaches—look forward. Those of you that have read our posts and our eBook on the projections for the post-pandemic job market know I like to look forward. Many jobseekers—both students and career changers—need to know what is happening in the near future rather than the next five or seven years.

So, here are three 2023 trends that we have read about this week:

1. There will be a “great rebalancing,”
2. Recent college grads will have outstanding opportunities, and
3. The ten “best” jobs will be in technology, data, and health care.

An expression we heard some years ago is “the only constant in an organization is change.” The same thing applies to the job market and economy in the 2020s. Nonetheless, virtually all businesses make forecasts and plans. Job search is a business function—it’s our personal marketing and branding function—so jobseekers should make forecasts and plans, too.

There will be a “great rebalancing.”

David Morel predicts a “great rebalancing”, in his Forbes career column. This rebalancing will follow the “great resignation” of 2021 and 2022. Simply put, those that participated in the great resignation need jobs and in some cases, new careers. That suggests the unemployment rate will increase to about 4.5%, according to The Conference Board), and employers will have more leverage. New team members should not assume they will get everything they want, such as flexible work arrangements and other benefits.

Another old expression—“don’t quit your day job”—comes to mind. Yesterday, a regular client left me a message in the morning that he had just quit his job. This worried me until I spoke with him at the end of the day. He had already secured another job with more stable work hours at the same salary! While stories like this are not uncommon, I’ve been told, in high-demand fields such as IT, don’t assume you will land right away, especially if there is sudden market shift in your field.

Perhaps the railroad workers’ settlement being imposed by Congress is emblematic of the trend. Workers did not get everything they wanted. They will, according to press reports, get a 24% pay increase bringing average salaries to more than $100,000 per year, but they did not get PTO for medical appointments.

While great jobs with six-figure salaries will be available in 2023, don’t expect to get everything you want. (If you do get everything you want in a negotiation, you probably did not ask for enough!)

Recent college graduates will have outstanding opportunities.

The “great resignation” appears to be having an unexpected benefit—opportunities for recent college graduates. According to Business Insider, it is less expensive for employers to fill gaps in their ranks with new graduates rather than with experienced workers that ask for better compensation.

Typically, it is a challenge for recent graduates to find their first jobs. Among other things, new grads have to determine what they want to do next. Many of our clients are not working in fields associated with their college majors or even their advanced degrees. An attorney we worked with, for example, is working as a software engineer.

The ten “best” jobs will be in technology, data, and health care.

An eLearning blog, Emeritus, suggests that technical, mathematical, and health professions—often called STEM jobs—will be among the ten best careers for 2023. Their list includes:

1. Data scientists,
2. Machine learning engineers,
3. Nurse practitioners,
4. Marketing analysts,
5. Network security professionals,
6. Project managers,
7. Human resources roles,
8. Blockchain engineers,
9. Digital marketers, and
10. Financial managers.

Only four of these job categories—marketing analysts, digital marketers, human resources professionals, and project managers–according to Emeritus, offer projected average salaries under $100.000/year.

The apparent proliferation of six figure jobs may not be encouraging for everyone entering the job market or seeking a career change in 2023 for at least two reasons. First, not everyone has the math, engineering, or advanced healthcare credentials required for these jobs. Also, in high cost metropolitan areas such as New York, San Francisco, or Washington, DC, a salary in excess of $100K may not ensure a high standard of living for a family.

Keep in mind, also, that conditions in the job market can change rapidly. For example, two recent items in the news could herald changes in the market for tech workers such as blockchain engineers—the collapse of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange, losses in the NFT market, and the massive layoffs at Twitter.

Concluding comments

Overall, the evidence points to outstanding opportunities for jobseekers in 2023, although market conditions are unpredictable. While the unemployment rate is generally low, sudden and unexpected reversals, such as failures in the tech sector can lead to large numbers of layoffs and bankruptcies. As a result, it pays to be prepared even if your job and industry seem to be stable at the moment.

Have your resume and LinkedIn profile ready to go!