Tech jobs in Indianapolis keep growing
Indianapolis has one of the more competitive smaller labor markets for tech jobs in the country, a new report says.
Dwight Adams, dwight.adams@indystar.com
A record 109,000 Hoosiers quit their jobs in August in an economy where employers are desperately looking to hire and the worker pool has shrunk, according to a federal report on hiring and turnover.
“It’s at a level that we haven’t seen ever before,” said Andrew Butters, an economist at Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business. The rate of Hoosiers quitting, which accounts for growth of the economy, is also high compared to recent history, he said.
The mass resignations have fueled a worker shortage, especially in low-wage industries where people are fed up with the pay and grueling work.
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The data paints a picture of a national pandemic trend that economists are referring to as The Great Resignation, the result of masses of people re-evaluating their lives during the pandemic to pursue other careers, spend more time with family, retire early or become stay-at-home parents.
Indiana business leaders and Republicans lobbied for an early end to pandemic unemployment benefits to drive people back the work. However, early data shows that states that ended those programs early did not see much of an impact on employment growth.
Here’s what else we learned from the report:
Indiana has one of the highest rates of quitting across the state
The rate of people quitting in Indiana, 3.6% in August, was the fourth highest across the country. Only Kentucky, Georgia and Idaho had higher rates than Indiana. With workers in demand, people are also quitting in pursuit of better jobs, Butters said.
The national rate in August was 2.9%. The August numbers are preliminary, which means they could be adjusted later.
Employers in Indiana are much more reluctant to layoff or fire employees
Because of the competition to hire workers, the rate of layoffs and firings in Indiana was 0.8%, which was among the lowest across the country.
Employers are holding on to employees because of the difficulties in hiring to meet demand for labor, said Butters.
The demand for workers is high
There were an estimated 211,000 open jobs across the state, which is high. But compared to other states, Indiana’s open job rate was in the middle of the pack. That state’s rate is 6.5%.
There’s a lot of hiring in Indiana, Butters said. Some of that is people quitting and getting hired for other jobs and others is just growing industries like warehousing and grocery retails looking for more workers.
The rate of hiring, which is the number of hires as a percentage of the total worker pool, was 4.6%.
So far, wage increases haven’t made a difference
From big chains to small businesses, some employers have tried modestly boosting wages to attract workers. Others, however, have resisted in hopes that the shortage of workers is a temporary problem.
“The wage increases that we have seen thus far have not really made a dent in the labor force participation rate,” Butter said. “Maybe it’s just that it hasn’t gotten high enough.”
The percentage of Hoosiers in the labor force is smaller
The rate of people working or looking for work in August was 63.1% in Indiana. That’s compared to 64.4% in August of 2019.
That means employers are competing for fewer workers.
Contact IndyStar reporter Binghui Huang at 317-385-1595 or Bhuang@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @Binghuihuang
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