My Breakdown of the January '24 Jobs Report

JOB SEARCH STRATEGY
HEAD SCRATCHING JOBS REPORT.

January’s US jobs report is out and once again it has people scratching their heads.

Everyone keeps waiting for the jobs shoe to drop, but like like Travis Kelce receiving a pass over the middle... there’s no dropping.

Today I’ll break down…

• The overall job gains by sector.

• Unemployment levels at historic lows.

• Average job search duration vs historic averages.

• Where in the US those jobs are coming from.

• What types of companies are hiring.

• How much salaries increased if you stayed put vs left your job.

All of that from little ol me to little ol you.

Let’s go!

CHANGE IN US EMPLOYMENT
UP AND TO THE RIGHT.

Total US nonfarm employment rose by 353,000 jobs in January, a 0.22% increase from December.

That’s the largest monthly increase in jobs since January of last year (482k jobs added between Dec 22 and Jan 23, a 0.31% increase).

The US hasn't seen a single month of job shrinkage since December of 2020, but that’s not odd.

Between 2014 and 2020, the average monthly job growth sat at 0.14% and never saw a month of job shrinkage.

If we discard the COVID 2020 data and look at data since 2021, we have seen a significant increase in the pace of job addition to the economy.

Since 2021, the average monthly job number has increased by 0.27%, which is a 97% increase from the prior six-year average.

Now… there was a lot of recovery to be done post-COVID.

In April 2020, US employment numbers dropped by 13.57% to levels not seen since before 2014.

But, as we returned to life and work, we passed the pre-COVID employment levels in March of 2022, and since then, the average monthly job growth numbers have remained elevated at 0.19% vs the 0.14% average monthly increase from 2014 to 2020.

So what does this all mean?

It means that people are hiring.

And not just hiring but hiring at a rate faster than the years pre-COVID.

But what about all the news about layoffs and unemployment?

UNEMPLOYMENT
GRAB THOSE BELL BOTTOMS.

Unemployment rate didn’t change month over month, remaining at 3.7% of the US population.

The US unemployment rate has been below 4% for 24 months straight.

That’s the first time that has happened since your parents (or maybe grandparents) were listening to Jefferson Airplane, taking LSD, and protesting the Vietnam War during the 1967 Summer of Love.

But it’s not all sunshine, butterflies, and rainbows.

Estimated January tech layoffs (according to layoffs.fyi) reached 31k.

That’s more than all of the tech layoffs in Q3 or Q4 of last year in just a single month.

So, it’s a confusing time for tech.

Record low unemployment, but job cuts are increasing, particularly in retail, consumer, and fin-tech.

There is intense job search competition, but more jobs are added monthly than the previous six-year average.

So what does that mean for job seekers and their job search?

JOB SEARCH DURATION
SHORTER THAN BEFORE.

It now appears that we’re back to our pre-COVID job search duration levels and close to record low job search durations.

January’s average months spent unemployed was 5.2 months.

During 2021 the average time spent on unemployment spiked to as high as 8 months but with an improvement in the economy and less subsidies for unemployed people we have seen the job search normalize to pre-COVID levels.

Last year, the average time spent unemployed, which can be used as a proxy for the average duration of a job search, was 5.16 months and hit a single-month 9-year low in February of 4.8 months.

That was an 8.6% decrease from 2022 (5.6 months) and a 28% decrease from 2021 (7.2 months).

So, while the news looks scary with layoffs all over the place, take comfort that it’s not any worse than it was before COVID and in reality… it’s better than its ever been.

But if you’re worried about a layoff you should do the following:

1. Understand your financial runway and make any necessary cuts to ensure you’re able to last at least 5.2 months.

2. Watch this video I recorded about the top 10 things to do immediately following a layoff. If you think a layoff could be coming, I would start doing them now.

REGION
SOUTH VS THE MIDS.

In January, according to ADP, the job growth predominantly came from two places.

The South Atlantic and the Middle Atlantic.

That means states like:

• Deleware

• Florida

• Georgia

• Maryland

• North Carolina

• South Carolina

• Virginia

• West Virginia

• Washington, DC

• New York

• Pennsylvania

• New Jersey

Essentially, most of the eastern seaboard (unfortunately, the data isn’t broken down state-by-state).

Things didn't look so hot for all of you on the West Coast.

The West saw the lowest job growth of any region.

In fact, the Pacific region (Washington, Oregon, and California) saw zero job growth.

So if you’re located on the West Coast and looking for a job, you’ll likely have more luck looking for work on the East Coast either remotely or by making a cross-country move.

COMPANY SIZE
SERIES B HOT SPOT.

The data shared by the ADP jobs report doesn’t solely focus on startups, but if we compare startup stages to the size of companies that are hiring, it appears that Series B startups are the hot spot.

Companies with 50 to 249 employees led the country with the most jobs added, followed by companies with more than 500 employees.

This is an imperfect measurement since I don’t have the data specifically for job openings at startups by employee count, but if we were to extrapolate the data against typical company size by stage it would look something like…

1. Series B

2. Series C & Late Stage Companies

3. Seed

4. Series A

This is also what I have been seeing in the UpEmployment Accelerator.

Lots of opportunities in the Seed and Series B stages.

WAGE CHANGES
GOODBYE TO MASSIVE INCREASES.

During the height of the 2021 hiring boom, the average year over year increase in pay seen by job changers was as high as 20%.

That number is crazy!

But boy have things changed.

Last month, people who stayed in their jobs saw a year-over-year wage increase of 5.2%, while people who changed jobs saw an increase of 7.2%.

That 7.2% figure is the smallest annual gain since May of 2021.

But although that sound shocking, it’s really just a return to normalcy.

It still pays to change your job, it just might not be the massive step change many people saw in 2021.

The good news for everyone who stayed in their jobs… the average annual increase for job stayers beat the national inflation number of 3.4% for 2023.

OPEN ROLES
Who’s Hiring?

kore.ai

• What They Do: A platform to assist organizations in designing, testing, and managing chatbots for various business needs, both internally and for customer interactions, across multiple communication channels to enhance digital engagements and streamline processes.

• Number of Employees: 1000

• Total Raised To Date: $296.31M

• Last Known Valuation: $800M

• Last Raise Date: January 30, 2024

• Recent Raise: $150M

• Series: D

• Pitchbook Success Probability: 90% Success

• Open Roles: Careers Page

• Departments Hiring Right Now:

  • Payroll/HR

  • Finance

  • Sales

Zum

• What They Do: On-demand transportation and care services for children, featuring safe and reliable rides from vetted drivers through a mobile app, helping parents save time on driving their kids to school and activities

• Number of Employees: 208

• Total Raised To Date: $340.66M

• Last Known Valuation: $1.3B 🦄

• Last Raise Date: January 31, 2024

• Recent Raise: $140M

• Series: E

• Pitchbook Success Probability: 95

  % Success

• Open Roles: Careers Page

• Departments Hiring Right Now:

  • Engineering

  • Facilities

  • Accounting

  • Finance

  • Launch

  • Customer Support

  • General Operations

  • School Operations

  • Product

  • Product Operations

• Interesting Senior Roles:

  • Director of Driver (supply) Growth

  • Program Manager - Launch

  • Sr Operations Financial Analyst

  • Senior Web Engineer

  • Senior Engineer - Backend Platform

datasnipper

• What They Do: An automation platform tailored for auditors, focusing on speeding up and enhancing the quality of various audit processes like testing details and controls, walkthroughs, and financial statements, thereby improving efficiency and audit quality.

• Number of Employees: 158

• Total Raised To Date: $100.34

• Last Known Valuation: $1.09B 🦄

• Last Raise Date: February 1, 2024

• Recent Raise: $100.34M

• Series: B

• Pitchbook Success Probability: 97% Success

• Open Roles: Careers Page

• Departments Hiring Right Now:

  • BD

  • Account Management

  • Partnerships

  • Accounting

  • Sales

We’ll see what happens as 2024 rolls on.

There are many interesting factors at play…

• A seemingly red-hot economy

• Slowing inflation

• Big tech layoff numbers to kick off the year

• Likely more tech layoffs coming due to the challenging fundraising environment and watching companies like Facebook cut headcount but maintain productivity.

The startup job search market is more competitive now than it has ever been so I highly recommend reading through my prior newsletters and doing everything you can to set yourself apart.

And I’ll be with you every step of the way as you hunt for that career-accelerating startup job.

Let’s become career champions together 🏆

Kyle