Cost of Living Going up?

I think it is. Last year the Social Security Cost of Living Index did not increase after going up almost 5% the previous year.

But watching salaries and cost associated with hiring going up makes me wonder if we are not going to see a major jump in the COLA this December. Gas is up. Food is up. Utilities, health, consumer goods all on the rise. I even noticed it in clothes in recent weeks; khakis that had stayed about the same price had jumped up by $5 a pair. Almost 15% higher.

One of the biggest things companies struggle with is staying competitive salary wise while also maintaining equity and fairness internally with existing employees. If you have 5 engineers in house that earn on average $50k a year, but you have to pay $55k a year to an external new employee, how do you handle that? We are already seeing in the skilled technical areas growing salary pressure. The cost of hiring machinists, technicians, engineers, accountants is on the rise. Gas costs and driving distances are a matter of negotiation now. Relocations bring about the issue of home loans and interest rate discussions. The bottomed out rates of last year are slowly rising.

If your a company beginning to hire back stay competitive. Its true that high unemployment is still presenting some great hiring opportunities, but in the more technical fields salaries are tightening.

Stayed tuned for more on this and we continue to watch this as well as benefits costs this year!

Herb Dew