Happy August! Labor Day is only a few weeks away, which I can only hope means cooler temperatures. During my (HOT) run this morning, I officially decided that I am done with summer...bring on sweater weather! 

I was recently asked for my overall thoughts on the labor market by a CPGA Member as they prepared to ask for raises for their staff. I wanted to share my response with all of you, as I believe it is valuable insight.

"As we are now in the middle of the 3rd quarter of 2023, we begin to turn our attention to budget and business planning for 2024. Here in the Carolinas, the 4th quarter is "jobs season", where we typically see an increase in open positions and a flurry of movement between jobs. 

Given the current market conditions, I have been advising employers to focus on retaining the talented employees that they currently have, even if it is at a high cost, as opposed to trying to attract new talent. I saw this for a few reasons:

• The cost of acquiring new employees is extremely high. My latest calculations showed that the starting salary for a new hire was 11-22% higher than the salary of the previous employee (depending on the level of involvement by a PGA Career Consultant. Full Executive searches were at 22%). If your current employees are valuable, why not just pay them?

• The unknown costs of a valued employee leaving are difficult to measure, but you can likely assume a business disruption from being short staffed and increasing the risk of burn out for the other staff members as they pick up the slack.

• Housing is a major issue, and it is becoming an "anchor" for potential job seekers, as they simply can not afford to move. Current homeowners are particularly stuck, as 23% of homeowners nationally have a mortgage below 3% and 61% have a mortgage below 4%. It doesn't make sense for them to move into a 7% mortgage rate at this time. For the renters, it isn't much better. In your market, the average rent for a 1 bedroom apartment is nearly $2,000, and you can add moving expenses, security deposits, etc to the list of things many can't afford. 

So my final advice is this...if you have valuable employees, treat them like gold. They are hard to replace and the unintended consequences of allowing them to leave because of money, work/life balance, etc is often a bad business decision. Employers have begun to take notice. Here in the Carolinas, PGA Members have received almost $2 million in compensation increases from their employer in the past 18 months. It's a start, though many are still telling me they are burned out."

I feel like this topic justifies a REALLY deep dive into the data, with insight into additional housing / rental data, burnout rates, and compensation information. I hope to get to it after Labor Day, though I am struggling to find a hole in my calendar that is big enough for a project of this size.

Speaking of the labor market, you may remember that in my June report, I shared that "there were over 1,200 new associates registered since July 1, 2022, which represents the biggest number since 2015!".  Here in the Carolina's, it has meant a 17% increase in Associates year over year. Additional good news came this week, as I was told that we are on track to drop the fewest members since 2014 for non-payment of dues. 

So we are bringing in more people to the Association and controlling attrition. On the surface, that is excellent news as both have been priorities the past few years. But we need to begin to pay attention to the basic economic principles of supply and demand, as the recent lack of supply (available labor) has driven up both the demand and the wages for those workers. There would seem to be an inflection point where an oversupply of labor will put downward pressure on wages. Let's hope that point on the supply/demand curve is a long way off. 

Final Thoughts

You will notice the number of PGA Compensation Profiles below is in RED. This means that we have not yet hit our goal for Compensation Profile's created or updated in 2023. We need to have 994 (an oddly specific number) Members / Associates create or update their compensation in PGA.org by October 31, 2023 in order to receive $19,500 in additional ADP funding. This is a significant amount of money, and I will continue to update this group as to our status. 

It was great attending a few events in recently, including the South Carolina Open and Carolina's Open, as well as education events in Cashiers, Greenville (SC), and Hilton Head. Up next is the Assistants Championship, Senior & Ladies Championships, and an education event in Myrtle Beach.

As always, I appreciate the opportunity to work with all of you. Please let me know if you have any questions, and I hope to see all of you soon.

Respectfully submitted, 

Mike Mueller

No active paid searches at this time

All Active Positions

June 2023 Career Services Report Link

July 2023 Career Services Report Link

PGA Compensation Profile - Carolinas Section Participation

For a list of the active PGA Members and Associates who have never provided their compensation information, CLICK HERE.

For a list of the active PGA Members and Associates who have not updated their information in 2023, CLICK HERE.

Job Preferences - Carolinas Section Participation