PRESIDENT'S LETTER FROM MATTHEW COOLEY
First, it provides thoughtful analytics on hiring, skills gaps and workforce migration for the NYC market. Hiring is up almost 10% vs. this time last year, and we have lost more workers who move to the West Coast than we have gained from places like Boston and Bangalore. Those are interesting facts and are summarized into simple text and charts. LinkedIn does a good job packing their analysis into a brief monthly report.
Even more interesting is the section called, "Skills Gap". LinkedIn defines this gap as the sum of New York City’s abundance gap (supply exceeds demand) plus its scarcity gap (demand exceeds supply). And they list the skills driving both gaps. Guess where finance skills end up in the February 2018 report? If you guessed the abundance gap, bingo! Out of the top 10 abundant skills, four are in finance roles (General Finance, Corporate Finance, Accounting, Tax). No finance skills appear on the top 10 scarce list.
Really? Aren’t we as finance professionals constantly barraged with articles, studies and expert opinions as to how important and in-demand our skills are? Aren’t salaries finally on their way up? Aren’t recruiters reporting how busy they are? What gives?
Well, LinkedIn claims 146 million workers in the U.S. have profiles, 20,000 companies use their platform to recruit, and over 3 million jobs are posted every month. That’s a lot of data and suggests perhaps that there is an abundance gap for finance skills in New York City, at least for the roles listed on their platform.
As members of FEI, whether you’re recruiting talent to your team, happen to be looking for a new job, or simply doing your best every day at work, you automatically rise above the abundance gap. You are better connected, better informed, and better prepared than those who don’t invest in their profession. It boils down to common sense and a little extra effort.
I don’t know what to make of all the conflicting information out there about our profession but in the end, common sense still prevails.
See you soon,
Matt
CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL NEWSLETTER