What will the job market bring in 2023?

By: Eli Amdur
Guest columnist
01/01/2023

..... Every year around this time I receive a flock of requests for predictions for the new year. After all, I'm a career and executive coach, job market observer, columnist, and so on. I must, the assumption goes, know that something worth sharing is coming. Nineteen years ago, when I first started writing this column, I thought that was a good idea, and I started doing it.
..... Well, that went on for a couple of years until I saw the folly. I realized that in my business, economists make projections and fools make predictions - and the minute you make either one, you understand why pencils have erasers and keyboards have delete keys.
..... However, if your shift your posture, and spend a little less time doing stuff and a little more time thinking about stuff, you'll be well on the way to being prepared for what's to come. In fact, you may wind up being the one who causes what's to come, in a self-referential way. The future, it is said, didn't just happen; it was cerated.
..... thinking not only about this past year but about the past two, we've witnessed an unbelievable and unprecedented display on the part of the job market. In the face of more crises than have ever concurrently afflicted us - globally, in fact - the job market grew by an astounding 10,756,000 jobs as of November's [2022] BLS report. By the time the counting for the year is over, we'll likely see 11,000,000. That's (a) the best in our history by far, (b) the best on earth, and (c) a record that will be long-standing. Give all that:
..... There's no way, say many doubters, the 2023 job market can sustain the mighty forces of 2021/2022. Or is there? I'd be hard-pressed to predict these levels will sustain, but I won't be surprised if they do. The return of millions of hospitality jobs is not complete. The infrastructure bill will start creating jobs. All statistical indicators - open jobs, hires rate, quits rate, layoffs, wage and salary increases - are trending in textbook harmony, making the market extraordinarily well balanced and healthy. for the job seeker and career changer, the message is simple: make your bold move, think creatively, and negotiate form strength. Jobs in tech for tech's sake are going downhill, but tech jobs in companies across the spectrum are trending strong. According to layoffs.fyi , 1,003 tech companies had laid off 152,421 workers this year through December 22, [2022] bringing to mind something Henry David Thoreaus said: "It is not enough to be industrious. So are the ants. What are you being industrious about?"
..... In answer to that, there's never been a better time to tie your technical skills - indeed, your entire career - to a cause.
..... No matter what your line of work is, there are issue-oriented companies, nonprofits, and government agencies that need you. And they're hiring, as witnessed by more than 10 million jobs being open for the 16th consecutive month.
..... How nice is it to get out of bed every morning and go to work for an organization that makes a difference in the world, no matter how small a corner of it you tend?"
..... One of the most important - not to mention dazzling - scientific developments in history took place on December 5 [2022] at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's National Ignition Facility, in California, when 192 laser were fried at a capsule about the size of a pencil's eraser, thereby setting off a fusion reaction that produced more energy than it consumed. Although we're a couple of decades away from common application or commercial monetization of this turning point in our civilization, make no mistake you were here when it happened
..... When I asked Dr. Edmund Synakowski, vice provost for research and innovation at Stevens Institute of technology in Hoboken, if this is what E=mc2 looks like, he issued a quick, emphatic confirmation. I will have plenty to say about my conversation with Dr. Synakoski in an upcoming article, but suffice to say, this event is evidence of what Abraham Maslow thought of us humans: that we have "wonderful possibilities and inscrutable depths."
..... May our possibilities be realized and our depths be reached in 2023 - and beyond.
..... Happy New Year.

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