Special Questions

Texas Manufacturing Outlook Survey

Data were collected January 17–25, and 100 Texas manufacturers responded to the survey.

NOTE: 100 responses.

NOTE: 100 responses.

NOTES: 52 responses. This question was only posed to those currently trying to hire or recall workers.

NOTES: 35 responses. This question was only posed to those noting a lack of available applicants/no applicants.

Texas Service Sector Outlook Survey

Data were collected January 17–25, and 317 Texas business executives responded to the survey.

NOTE: 315 responses.

NOTE: 313 responses.

NOTES: 154 responses. This question was only posed to those currently trying to hire or recall workers.

NOTES: 108 responses. This question was only posed to those noting a lack of available applicants/no applicants.

Texas Retail Outlook Survey

Data were collected January 17–25, and 70 Texas retailers responded to the survey.

NOTE: 70 responses.

NOTE: 70 responses.

NOTES: 34 responses. This question was only posed to those currently trying to hire or recall workers.

NOTES: 27 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.

Texas Manufacturing Outlook Survey

• Labor is available at the higher overall wage structure that occurred during COVID. Our average wage is up from $12 per hour pre-COVID to $19–20 per hour today.
• After implementing a minimum wage of $15 per hour, we assumed that our applicant pool would increase. That hasn’t been the case. We are still trying to fill open positions that have been open for months. We routinely have interviews set, only to have no-shows from applicants.

• We are likely overstaffed by about 15 percent right now but are not willing to lay off or cut hours as we’re unsure if things will pick up. Again, uncertainty is high!

• It’s really hard to be adding new employees when you can’t get the ones on the payroll a full 40 hours of work.

• We are only hiring for key open positions and allowing attrition to reduce the overall head count.

• Supply-chain issues/delays continue to impact production and delivery times. When one supplier starts to see some daylight and starts getting caught up, another declares force majeure or has some sort of delay that significantly impacts our production. There is no end in sight.

• The skilled labor market is tight.

• We are not seeing the normal applications that we usually see after the first of the year.

• It’s just plain hard to find quality people who want to work. The government money has really spoiled young people from wanting to learn and work for future goals. They think that they don’t have to work to be satisfied.

• We do not need to recall workers, as we did not downsize in areas we are growing. We did decrease labor forces that are no longer required due to a business model change. We have a hard time finding qualified talent in the areas of need.
• We are investing in automation and better tools to improve production efficiency rather than hiring one or two more people.

• The preemployment drug screen requirement turns away more candidates than I’d like to say. We have employee safety issues on our workplace property due to an increase in the homeless population in our area of Dallas and little effective response from city of Dallas police, aside from wanting to fine us for the litter and the encampments left on our property. This is getting to be a very big issue in Dallas.

• Availability of applicants has improved because we’re paying $4 per hour more than we were just six months ago, and we’re hiring more from alternative sources (first jobs, out-of-prison programs, etc.). We’re now paying just shy of triple minimum wage for jobs that require no skills. It's hard to be competitive when wages grow that fast, but you can’t increase prices.

Texas Service Sector Outlook Survey

• We are OK in terms of staffing.

• We have recently seen an influx of candidates who are finishing seasonal positions.

• The employment pool has improved in both quantity and quality of applicants. Also, the phenomenon of "ghosting" the employer after an interview has been scheduled, conducted or an offer made has reduced.

• Currently, it is taking more time to find the right person to hire and add to our team.
• If you don't offer a fully remote work environment, it’s unlikely you are going to get experienced staff under the age of 40. We think virtual and online training (which is critical to new hires) is weak and does not meet our standard for an acceptable user experience.
• Customers are slow to pay, which has caused us to cover some of the work. In the past, we had enough staff to cover, which allowed us to seek out more business.

• We have a strong team of recruiters, part-time researchers (offshore) and two to three interns (college age). Currently, we are at a perfect level of employees to increase our workload by about 20 percent without needing to bring on more staff.
• We are on a hiring freeze to jack up profits, which the market has pushed us to do.
• As a small business owner, I struggle to be competitive with wages and benefits.
• We are having more difficulty hiring accounting staff (nondegreed) than engineers.
• At this point, [there are] no work assignments on the six-month horizon.
• There is a lack of qualified and experienced applicants. We are looking for in-office hires. Remote work is showing signs of inefficiency and loss of productivity.
• We are looking at eliminating positions.

• Increases are planned near term as orders occur.

• We were forced to increase wages and benefits in 2022 to attract and retain employees. We were forced to increase selling prices in 2022 as a result of increases in supplies and labor expenses. We have seen a decrease in business in 2022. In late November, we were forced to lower employee wages as a result of the decrease in business. We cannot raise prices anymore.

• Rural markets are tough environments to find competent employees to fill positions. Compensation is an effective tool to entice people currently employed to consider migrating to another job.
• We are understaffed but having to cut costs by laying off employees because we are currently not profitable.

• Costs are increasing as sales prices and product demand decline.

• The slowdown in applicants may be a function of the time of year.
• [There are] slight improvements in candidate quality and volume. We attribute that to post-holiday job searchers beginning their search as well as some of the layoffs, especially in the tech sector for information services workers.

• Who’s left to hire is increasingly not worth what they want [for a salary].

Texas Retail Outlook Survey

• It is discouraging looking for new workers. I see a lot of resumes of possibly qualified people, but often many of those resumes show more than one job per year. Since our jobs require some training, we can't hire anyone who we suspect may leave in a short time. Problems are primarily with younger people. For example, we see them take the whole day off for an appointment and other reliability issues. It is concerning for the future.
• A few months ago, hiring was more difficult, but it seems to have eased a bit. It's a balancing act to hire new employees in the same position as existing [ones] and have to pay the new person a higher wage. It is causing us to reassess pay strategies.

• We are understaffed primarily in our service center. We need qualified, productive technicians. There is a shortage of qualified employees in the area.
• We are seeing more applications for employment—not sure what's driving the increase.

• [We have] no plans to cut back but are not moving as quickly to fill open positions. [We] anticipate a hiring uptick once we have a better line of sight into the year.

• We are having substantial difficulty recruiting new hires at the entry level/barista [position]. We are essentially still competing with ongoing generous government transfer payments, and although wages have increased materially in the past year, many workers are simply demanding more. We have insufficient [numbers of] applicants and fewer qualified applicants.
• We have been cutting jobs for the past several months little by little.
• We can't afford to be fully staffed due to the unprecedented increases in the cost of food and other inputs.