Special Questions

Texas Manufacturing Outlook Survey

Data were collected January 16–24 and 90 Texas manufacturers responded to the survey.

NOTE: 89 responses.

NOTES: 41 responses. This question was only posed to those currently trying to hire workers. “Applicants seeking more remote work options than offered" was added in January 2024.

NOTE: 88 responses.

NOTE: 89 responses.

Texas Service Sector Outlook Survey

Data were collected January 16–24 and 282 Texas business executives responded to the survey.

NOTE: 276 responses.

NOTES: 132 responses. This question was only posed to those currently trying to hire workers. “Applicants seeking more remote work options than offered" was added in January 2024.

NOTE: 266 responses.

NOTE: 273 responses.

Texas Retail Outlook Survey

Data were collected January 16–24 and 58 Texas retailers responded to the survey.

NOTE: 56 responses.

NOTES: 26 responses. This question was only posed to those currently trying to hire workers. “Applicants seeking more remote work options than offered" was added in January 2024.

NOTE: 54 responses.

NOTE: 56 responses.

Special Questions Comments

These comments have been edited for publication.

• We are able to find people when we need them.
• After the holidays, our staff tends to be stable for a few months.
• We are paying the best in benefits and above-average wages with more flex time to retain staff.

• Our outlook remains very uncertain. Demand is trending negative for goods, resulting in tightening in spending in most areas.

• This is the lowest [job] application rate we have seen in over 15 years.
• We are flexing our workforce down through natural attrition. The rate of employee attrition has started to slow.

• We are looking to hire machine shop workers with technical expertise. When we offer what they want, they still don’t show up because they are offered more from some other company. We are coming to the point that we will need to buy a machine shop business to get the people we want. This is a very serious consideration now because we can get a fully operating business with the right people and customers.
• We're seeing more people come through the front door seeking employment. I don't, however, see an increased quality of applicants.

• With tech layoffs fairly broad based, attrition has slowed significantly.

• Finding skilled trades is still an enormous difficulty and the number one concern for sustained business growth

• Our truck repair business has slowed down drastically. We're cutting everyone's hours to survive this period.

• Many job applicants, particularly those in professional roles, still have compensation expectations in line with 2021 packages. However, given the lower availability of capital and greater emphasis on profitability, especially for venture-backed companies like ours, such expectations are now misaligned with what we as a company are willing and able to offer. We suspect some additional time is required for salary expectations to fall into line with what many companies can now absorb, but this misalignment has proved to be an impediment to hiring.

• It is hard to find the skills we need in the insurance business in our smaller-to-mid-sized city.

• We are actually hearing from a few applicants willing to take less in order to work for us.

• Until we have the anticipated economic crash, we think younger generations are not going to figure out that they cannot make $100,000 only working remotely from their parents’ home.  

• Because of the labor shortage, we are retaining workers who exhibit less than optimal performance. Under better labor market conditions, they probably would have been replaced. Remote workers continue to be less productive than in-office personnel. For the employers, accountability is problematic, and the remote arrangement is undesirable and unsustainable in the long run.
• The availability of quality candidates for our hires in January was surprisingly strong. Over the past year, finding qualified, skilled and motivated candidates has been very difficult.
• We are not increasing salaries and people are staying. We think they like the work-from-home deal, as we have no office anymore.
• We are seeing a huge surge in the number of applicants we get from outside the U.S. We don't see that many applicants from the U.S. It seems like engineers are less likely to move jobs right now.

• Revenues have decreased and expenses have increased—not a great combo.
• We are not hiring for our internal team. We are filling jobs for our client companies and partners.

• We are still short-staffed with very few people applying for jobs. A trend has emerged since COVID of applicants only wanting to work two to three days a week when a full-time position is needed. We had to remove the $1,000 sign-on bonus offer due to a slowdown in business and because too many people only worked the required 90 days to get the bonus and then quit.

• Training is the strongest factor in our retention program.