Special Questions

Texas Manufacturing Outlook Survey

Data were collected October 18–26, and 94 Texas manufacturers responded to the survey.

NOTE: 94 responses.

NOTES: 94 responses.

NOTES: 53 responses. This question was only posed to those currently trying to hire or recall workers.

NOTES: 34 responses. This question was only posed to those noting a lack of available applicants/no applicants.

Special Questions Comments

These comments have been edited for publication.

• Our workforce is stable.

• There has been a downtick in business versus the previous month. However, this may be in line with our normal end-of-year business cycle from our customers. It is difficult to gauge right now due to the looming concerns of possible recession and OPEC adjusting their output to drive prices up.

• Labor is not our problem. Sliding sales [activity] is.
• We continue to experience extreme difficulty finding any level of employment applicant despite significant base pay and existing pay rates. This continues to be the primary negative impact on all U.S. manufacturers, particularly the heavy manufacturing industry.

• We are operating by prayer these days!

• We are fighting for every order, it seems, even though we are the preferred vendor for most of our customers.

• We get many applicants for the open positions; however, not many of those are qualified.
• We have not laid anyone off for the last three years. However, we are making the decision to lay off several this fall, as revenue projections continue to look lower for the next 12 months. These are people who are historic underperformers.

• People are finding jobs that they can work from home.

Texas Service Sector Outlook Survey

Data were collected October 18–26, and 328 Texas business executives responded to the survey.

NOTE: 324 responses.

NOTES: 322 responses.

NOTES: 182 responses. This question was only posed to those currently trying to hire or recall workers.

NOTES: 129 responses. This question was only posed to those noting a lack of available applicants/no applicants.

Special Questions Comments

These comments have been edited for publication.

• We have been recruiting for drivers for two solid months. The candidates applying have all been outside the parameters we will consider.

• [We have hired] only a couple of temporary workers with special talents for specific projects.
• The Fed's [Federal Reserve’s] actions have introduced an increased amount of uncertainty and reduced liquidity to such a degree that we are paring back our hiring plans dramatically. Our current staffing level allows us to sustain but not scale. Since scale is our objective, we need to find alternative funding mechanisms in this capital-constrained environment, however. As a result, we are increasing prices and focusing on upmarket customers rather than lowering prices to keep pace with fluctuating demand. However, this leaves small business and middle-market customers without adequate support in our industry. We view continuing rate hikes as having a disproportionately negative impact on smaller business and having an inverse impact on our pricing.
• We're planning to do a layoff due to some recent corporate acquisitions. This is internal "house cleaning" of duplicate roles and underperforming employees, not due to macroeconomic conditions.

• The applicant pool for highly skilled professionals is underwhelming in experience, particularly for the salaries desired. Recruiting firms are having the same issues. For medium-skill jobs, we've turned to near-shoring some work.

• Competition for qualified employees is the greatest risk to maintaining adequate staffing.
• It’s still very difficult to find and hire competent senior-level staff.

• Finding good people is always hard. Applicants now have sticky geographic preferences or have unrealistic (in our opinion) salary expectations—particularly those with one to seven years' experience.
• We continue to see a consistent shortage of workers with appropriate technical skills and appropriate soft skills for fast-paced roles. We continue to seek new avenues of recruitment, role awareness and connection with sources of new labor.

• A decreasing number of younger workers seem to understand or appreciate that hard work and long-term dedication are proven pathways to success. One of our very well-paid accountants just quit because she wanted fewer hassles and thought it was unfair that we wanted her to work at the office. Meanwhile, skills are diminishing. The mentality seems to be if I just show up at a school, a great job will follow, as opposed to, I want a great job, so I will figure out how to learn what I need to get it.
• Inflation, an open border, international uncertainty and the leadership of our republic are major concerns.

• We are typically looking for field sales types or construction machinery technicians, which are fields that are hard to fill anytime. They are more difficult to fill with these "everyone gets a trophy" generations.

• With an increase in job hopping and less experienced new hires, we're having to spend more nonbillable resources to train staff. Productivity is taking a hit as absences increase due to child care and/or elder care demands. We are not seeing a way out of this predicament anytime soon, and it is affecting the bottom line and stability.
• It is still an employee market for technical resources. I do not see this changing for the next three to six months.
• Previous government lockdowns distorted employee perceptions of what it means to work. New employees need to be taught a work ethic and effective interpersonal interaction.
• Nothing out of the ordinary for us. It is always hard to find good candidates, but we are having pretty good luck. It just takes some time. We had two open positions but just filled one and are looking for one other.
• We are on a hiring freeze to raise profitability.

• We have enough work for current workers. Although we are seeing a slight increase from the second quarter, we choose not to add additional staff to keep supporting the earning potential of our current team.
• Traditional staffing channels are not meeting expectations. We need to adjust and find new, improved channels of identifying suitable candidates.
• We are reducing expenses. The margins are very narrow due to higher input prices and labor. We still maintain a good backlog of orders; however, new orders have slowed considerably.

• Low-skill workers are easier to hire than high-skill workers. Our pressure for employees will make us look for all hiring options.
• Staffing is our biggest issue. We have a 66 percent vacancy rate in one of our most-needed job categories.
• In Texas general dentistry, hygienist supply is an issue. In Texas, somewhere between 10 and 20 percent of dental hygiene licenses weren't renewed in 2022. This creates a shortage, as well as a sharp spike in wage levels for those remaining in the labor pool. The salary/hourly rate for this group in Dallas is up 25 percent versus pre-COVID.

• This is the No. 1 issue at this hotel. We are located downtown, and potential applicants are choosing other opportunities since working downtown has parking challenges/cost, security concerns, and people want to work closer to their homes.

• Wages are too high to add staff, not to mention the recession looming.
• We continue to downsize to get to the right costs for payroll. We still have some areas to cut. Some areas are understaffed on purpose. We are continuing to work on this very directly and purposefully.

• High labor cost is forcing us to reduce head count.

• Things have worsened because competitors are increasing wages to attract new employees, and it is forcing us to have to increase wages to retain employees because we are understaffed.
• No one has applied. [Training] schools' enrollment is at an all-time low.

• We are doing fine, but other businesses in the area who are hiring have been seeing a modest improvement in availability of applicants for low-skill positions over the last few months.

Texas Retail Outlook Survey

Data were collected October 18–26, and 68 Texas retailers responded to the survey.

NOTE: 66 responses.

NOTES: 66 responses.

NOTES: 38 responses. This question was only posed to those currently trying to hire or recall workers.

NOTES: 30 responses. This question was only posed to those noting a lack of available applicants/no applicants.

Special Questions Comments

These comments have been edited for publication.

• We are currently looking for an individual with experience in accounting but not a CPA. Candidates are limited and hard to find for a family business.

• [There are] very few to no applicants for open positions. [There is a] high percentage of no-shows for interview appointments. [There is] very little loyalty from existing workers despite raising benefits and wages.
• We need technicians. It is an industry problem.

• We had hired several younger people trying to get them some experience in the industry as the tenure and average age of our workforce is high. Unfortunately, with the direction sales and margins are headed, we are forced to reevaluate our hiring plans. We knew a slowdown was coming but thought it would take months, and it hit us so abruptly.
• Keep raising rates this fast and we're really going to have a mess. You [the Federal Reserve] need to stop for at least 12 to 18 months.

• Inflation is putting pressure on business to compensate employees more and more while the reimbursements in health care continue to decline.

• Uncertainty in the overall economy keeps us hesitant to hire currently.

• We have set up interviews, but applicants do not show. We have hired workers, and they don't show up the first day. We have hired workers, and they quit for the most minor reasons. I have spent thousands of dollars on advertisements to fill job openings.
• We are getting more potential candidates over the last two weeks than we have since COVID. There are people out there who want to work.