By David Nilssen, CEO of DOXA Talent
Most CEOs feel the pressure in today’s labor market. Hiring is harder, wages are rising, and experienced employees are becoming more difficult to retain. Yet despite the constant conversation about talent shortages, few leaders step back and look at the underlying math clearly.
Even as hiring has cooled from the surge that followed the pandemic, the United States still carries millions of open positions. Demand for workers has not disappeared. Instead, it has shifted toward specialized and experienced roles that are increasingly difficult to fill. Many companies are discovering that the problem is not a lack of applicants, but a lack of qualified talent with the right skills.
Recent workforce research reinforces this reality. Roughly 71 percent of U.S. employers report that they are struggling to find the skilled talent they need. This isn’t simply cyclical noise in the labor market. It reflects a deeper structural mismatch between the skills companies require and the talent available to perform the work. Technical skill shortages are widening, experienced operators are retiring, and regional labor constraints are preventing companies from filling roles even when demand remains strong.
At the same time, wage pressure continues to build. The Employment Cost Index shows consistent year-over-year wage growth, while the Atlanta Federal Reserve’s wage tracker reveals a clear pattern: employees who switch jobs earn materially more than those who stay in place. For companies, this creates a compounding challenge. Hiring becomes more expensive, retention requires higher compensation, and the risk of competitors poaching key employees increases.
Layered on top of these trends is a demographic shift that many leaders still underestimate. Birth rates across developed economies have fallen below replacement levels, while experienced workers are exiting the workforce faster than they are being replaced. Over time, this creates a widening gap between the number of skilled roles companies need filled and the number of qualified workers available to fill them.
Mid-market companies often feel these pressures most acutely. Large enterprises can absorb wage inflation and outbid competitors for talent. Startups can attract employees with the promise of equity and outsized upside. Mid-sized organizations sit in the middle. They cannot indefinitely outspend enterprise firms, they cannot stretch their existing teams without risking burnout, and they cannot slow growth without sacrificing opportunity.
Eventually, every leadership team reaches a decision point.
One option is to compete harder inside the same local labor market, continuing to increase compensation in hopes of attracting the right people. Another is to accept rising wage premiums as the cost of doing business. But a third option is emerging for companies willing to rethink how work gets done.
That option is redesign.
Redesign means expanding geography rather than competing for talent in a single region. It means building remote infrastructure intentionally instead of treating distributed work as a temporary solution. It means leveraging ethical global talent to stabilize cost structures and expand capacity. And increasingly, it means using artificial intelligence to increase productivity per employee by removing repetitive work and accelerating execution.
The reality many leaders must confront is that the labor market is unlikely to return to the conditions of 2015. Demographic shifts, skills shortages, and wage pressure are long-term forces that will continue shaping the workforce for years to come.
If the math has changed, the architecture must change with it.
Top Questions Leaders Ask About Talent Shortages
1. Why are companies struggling to hire skilled workers right now?
Many companies are struggling to hire because demand for skilled workers continues to outpace supply. Demographic shifts, including declining birth rates and large numbers of experienced workers retiring, have tightened the labor market while businesses increasingly require specialized skills.
2. How can companies grow when skilled talent is difficult to find?
Organizations can expand capacity by widening their hiring geography, building remote workforce infrastructure, and integrating global professionals into their teams. Many companies are also using AI to automate repetitive work so existing employees can focus on higher-value tasks.
3. What strategies help mid-market companies compete for talent?
Mid-market companies often succeed by redesigning how work gets done rather than competing solely on salary. Expanding access to global talent, leveraging remote work, and increasing productivity through AI allows organizations to scale without relying entirely on local labor markets.
