As job market tightens, education, healthcare may present opportunity

According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics' February Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS), there were 8.7 million job openings, 3.5 million quits, and 5.8 million hires. In addition, layoffs ticked up by 1.1%. Empowered Planning founder Shinobu Hindert joins Wealth! to discuss how Americans can navigate a tightening labor market.

Hindert signals where in the job market there are the most openings: "There are so many job openings in education at all different levels from teachers to administrators and the same thing with the healthcare industry. There is a wide variety of jobs in demand and this is also trickling down to accountants, the financial industry. So there are specific in those industries, a lot of jobs are currently available."

She also recommends that job hunters reflect on their mindset: "I think the number one thing is to be flexible. And to open our minds to what skillsets you developed that AI cannot take over, but can compliment things that you're doing and allow for efficiency."

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Editor's note: This article was written by Nicholas Jacobino

Video Transcript

- JOLTS report. JOLTS tells us how many job openings, hirings, and separations took place in a given month. In February, we saw the number of job openings tick slightly higher but remaining relatively flat. Meanwhile, layoffs were a touch higher as well. Showing that the labor market remains tight. So how can workers navigate this environment.

Joining us now, we've got Shinobu Hindert, who is the founder of the Empowered Planning. Thank you so much for taking the time here today. First and foremost, you took a look at this report. You kind of looked through all of the different data pieces and try to get a sense of where there is still strength in the job openings out there or where there is more churn than expected. I want to just get your top line takeaway.

SHINOBU HINDERT: Things are relatively unchanged. However, employers, it's kind of shifting in their favor. They can be a little bit pickier about who they're hiring. And I think a lot of job hunters are feeling that crunch. They're trying to freshen up their own personal brand so they can become more attractive to employers where it kind of was flipped around a year ago.

- Yeah. It was interesting within the report in February, job openings increased in finance and insurance, state and local government, excluding education, arts, entertainment, recreation. All these things considered, where are there opportunities to be found in this labor market from your assessment?

SHINOBU HINDERT: There are so many job openings in education at all different levels, from teachers to administrators. And the same thing with the health care industry. There is a wide variety of jobs in demand. And this is also trickling down to accountants, the financial industry. So there are-- specific in those industries, a lot of jobs are currently available.

- There's also, of course, with the advent of new technology, consideration for companies where they might have, I don't know, robots whizzing around a factory and manufacturing jobs or where there might be the advent of generative AI taking on some other writing jobs in some cases, which was actually much of the conversation in negotiations with some of the screenwriters last year and making sure that they were not getting replaced. All of these things considered, how do people look for a new position when there are fewer openings that takes place as a result of new technology that might enter into the fray?

SHINOBU HINDERT: I think the number 1 thing is to be flexible and to open our minds to what skill sets you develop that AI cannot take over but can complement things that you're doing and allow for efficiency. And that's really important. Is to also do an audit of your personal brand on Google. See what's coming up, see if there's social media things that don't align with your professional aspirations, make sure that personally, your brand is really strong.

- It's one thing as well here to get replaced, perhaps, by generative AI. But it's another thing for artificial intelligence to screen you out. How can people make sure that as they're applying for that dream job or a new position, that they're creating a strong profile for themselves that's going to get them through to the hiring manager and into that, perhaps, in-person conversation?

SHINOBU HINDERT: That's a great question. We have to look at AI as our friend, instead of looking at it like it's the enemy here. Indeed came out with Smart Sourcing, it's their AI-powered product. And it's helping employers get instant recommendations on candidates who are actively searching.

So as a candidate, actively searching means you've been active on their site in the last 30 days. And through Indeed's updated profile, as the candidate, you can put in unique skills, any other kind of unique aspects of yourself and skills that you've acquired that they can highlight for you. So it's going to feel less of a manual effort on both ends.

And there's quicker access to scheduling, people will be able to get hired faster because job hunting on both sides-- employer and for the job seeker is really inefficient. So AI is going to hopefully marry those two together to make it easier to look for a job.

- Shinobu Hindert, thank you so much for taking the time here today. Of course, founder of Empowered Planning joining us here on Yahoo Finance. Thank you.

SHINOBU HINDERT: Thank you.