It’s hard to ignore The Wall Street Journal article with the headline about more big layoffs in 2024. What’s also hard to ignore are the mixed messages about the job market and what they mean to your business in the short-  and long-term.

As we all know by now, the job market data indicates a very robust job market with unemployment remaining surprisingly low. I blogged a few weeks ago on the December data that caught a lot of people off guard and has many worried that there are not enough good people to fill all the job openings.

But at the same time, Google, Amazon, Citigroup, Ebay, Macy’s, Microsoft, Salesforce, Sports Illustrated, and Xerox are just a few of the big companies laying off hundreds of thousands of employees. So what gives? Are things good? Are they bad? And what does the ultimate decider to the answer to that question – Wall Street – think?

It has been very interesting to watch the mindset trends of learners going through foundational business acumen simulations that are focused on building individual and company business savvy over the past six months.

In many of Advantexe’s core business acumen simulations, learners are presented with a portfolio of products and services that mimic real-world situations. At the most basic level, many companies have mature products, growth products, and new products. One of the most important decisions when you are playing to win is how you will manage the portfolio in terms of investments, resources, and time to optimize performance (revenue, profit, cash flow, and shareholder value).

Last week, I provided a quick analysis on the surprise jobs report. In the blog, I shared a perspective that the continued expected decreasing inflation rate would eventually convince the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates sooner than expected In our opinion, a cut in interest rates would stimulate the economy and be good for business.

A week ago, it seemed an absolute certainty that the inflation rate would continue to decrease, the job market would continue to be white hot, and everyone was buckling up for an uncertain economic future. But seemingly out of nowhere, the Bureau of Labor Statistics sent out a December surprise: seasonally adjusted inflation rose 0.3% for the month and 3.4% for the year. That is a significant number for one month especially when that month is December and the last month of the year.

Business Acumen comes in many shapes and sizes and depending on your function in the organization will inform you of the way you execute the strategy of your business. Customer Service is one of the most important functions within a business and is especially critical in a consumer business like hospitality.

As someone who has dedicated their career to providing business acumen skills to organizations in need of them, I am constantly amazed at the lack of them in organizations and functions where you’d think they are paramount.

What got me thinking about this is an ongoing dialogue I have been having with the service team at the hotel I am staying at this week.

I have been asked several times today about our reaction – from a Business Acumen perspective – to the surprising jobs report that came out this morning so I figured I would write a quick blog for your weekend reading.

If you didn’t see it, the United States economy added more than 216,000 jobs in December 2023, which is a very strong showing that exceeded many forecasts and emphasized that the labor market remains smoking white hot.

If you are following these job reports, this is not the first time everyone has been surprised. It feels like for the past 6 months at least every client we work with – from pharmaceuticals to industrial chemicals – has been gearing up for a recession that is never going to come. Unless there is a recession driven by a self-fulfilling prophecy of cuts and more cuts, which quite honestly is going to put those companies at an extreme disadvantage, we have nothing to worry about and as a matter of opinion, better prompt decision-makers to make more investments in people and the business.