Good morning. Amid the flat but likely turbulent economic outlook, wage increases for employees are expected to remain similar.
For U.S. companies, the average budget increase is expected to stabilize at 3.5% in 2026, matching the actual increase in 2025, according to the Payroll Budget Plan Report Willista Watson (wtw).
About 31% of respondents plan to lower their wage increase budget compared to last year, mainly due to concerns about possible recessions, weaker financial performance and the need for higher cost controls. By contrast, a few organizations planning to raise their budgets see competitive labor markets and inflationary pressures as key reasons. The global survey conducted from April to June included responses from 1,569 U.S. organizations.
WTW said employers no longer respond only to economic signals about payment allocations. They are considering other labor factors.
“Just like they are with any other investment, the most thoughtful CFOs we talk to look overall in every aspect of compensation and gains to better understand which programs resonate with employees the most and provide the highest ROI,” John Bremen, managing director and chief innovation and acceleration officer at WTW, told me.
Blemen explained that they viewed the “all rewards” as a portfolio, which makes sense because the largest companies spent billions on it. He said the CFO lowered spending on plans with less impact and further invested in plans with the most impact.
Another key finding of the report is that despite limited wage growth, employee turnover remains low. Fewer organizations now report challenges to employee stability than they did in the past two years. Only 30% of survey organizations found it difficult to attract or retain employees, down 11 percentage points from 2023. wtw found.
Not to mention, more and more employees want to be with their current employers (62% in 2024, compared to 49% in 2022), fewer are willing to accept offers (11% vs. 22%), but nearly 30% are still actively looking for job searches.
Other reasons why employees stayed were structural, he said. He explained that data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) showed that fewer job opportunities are available today than in previous years. “Even if there are still millions of open jobs in the U.S., there are much less availability for potential changers,” Bremen said. “The premium for changing jobs is lower today than in previous years.”
In June, the unemployment rate fell from 4.2% to 4.1%. Although 147,000 new jobs have been added, the private sector job growth is the slowest in eight months, according to BLS. In addition, 130,000 people left the labor force, and the unemployed worked longer. wealth Report.
To cope with this stable and challenging labor market, where turnover is relatively low, burnout and disengagement remain concerned, WTW finds the company is taking steps to support its workforce, including:
– Improve employee experience (47%)
– Enhanced health and wellness benefits (43%)
– Expand training opportunities (40%)
Commitment to employee well-being and engagement is crucial.
Sheryl Estrada
sheryl.estrada@fortune.com
Ranking list
Daniel S. TuckerEVP and CFO Southern Company (NYSE: SO), energy provider plans to retire. David P. Porochcurrently senior deputy director and chief accounting officer, was promoted to Tucker to replace Tucker, effective from July 31. From there, he served as EVP, CFO and Treasurer for Power, Georgia, and then EVP and CFO for Gas, 2021. Prior to joining Southern Company, he was a partner at Deloitte & Touche LLP.
Sandy Mahatme Appointed as Chief Financial Officer and Chief Business Officer Before the creature (NASDAQ:VOR), a clinical stage biotechnology company. Mahatme has gained over 30 years of executive leadership experience with Vor Bio. He recently served as National Resilience, Inc, a biomanufacturing company he co-founded in 2020. President, Chief Operating Officer and CFO.
event
The share of employed adults since March 2023 said their share of working using Chatgpt (released in November 2022) increased by 20 percentage points, reaching 28% today, according to the Pew Research Center. This includes 8 points since last year.
Overall, the share of Americans who have been on Chatgpt for tasks such as learning and entertainment has roughly doubled since the summer of 2023. Today, about one-third of American adults have tried Chatgpt, which includes 58% of the majority of adults under the age of 30.
However, 66% of Americans do not use chatbots, including 20% of them saying they hear nothing, According to the report.
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“Life is really precious. I want to make sure I find something that I’m very passionate about. I’m upset about working for other people in jobs that I’m not really passionate about.”
– Refrigerated Cookie Dough Empire Sweet Loren’s CEO Loren Castle in the latest wealth interview In 2006, when she was a 22-year-old graduate of the University of Southern California, she was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma a few months after graduation. While doing six months of chemotherapy, the Castle tackles healthier dietary challenges and figures out what your career will look like.
