The pandemic was a catalyst for millions of people in the U.S. to change their work situations – whether it was making the switch to work remotely, changing jobs, or changing companies. So we were wondering how people in the legal tech community felt about their work status these days. With inflation skyrocketing, rising interest rates, and talk of a recession, it might be reasonable to assume we will see the brakes applied to the resignation process. Nevertheless, contrary to reports of many negative factors affecting the economy, the U.S. job market added nearly 372,000 jobs last month, according to the June Jobs Report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
With mixed messages flooding the news wires, we wanted to find out how individuals working in the legal services field were feeling about the current job market in our vertical. Our goal was to determine if legal tech workers had settled in for the short term or were still thinking about a change.
The results of the poll are below.
Question: Thinking about your feelings toward work/life balance and company culture during the pandemic, please let us know where you stand today:
27%: Still thinking about a change
18%: I changed companies
27%: I never thought about leaving
27%: My employer made changes
With only a quarter of respondents still considering a change, it seems most legal techies are planning to stay where they are for the foreseeable future. Nearly 20% already changed employers, and the rest (54%) have been with the same employer through the pandemic without plans to go anywhere soon.
As an Executive Recruiter, I speak with job seekers in the legal world all day long, year after year. Based on those conversations, I can formulate a general sense of the legal job market conditions at any given time. Over the last couple of months, I have noticed a decrease in the number of people looking to leave a company or job due to corporate culture or the ability to work remotely, which were both significant reasons cited consistently during the last two years. Recently, most job seekers I have interviewed are more interested in taking on a new type of role or finding a company with a more desirable compensation and benefits plan. – David A. Netzer, President, Legal Tech Talent Network
According to an article published today on Bloomberg discussing the results of a survey conducted by Joblist, \”Many Americans now feel more urgency to find work amid signs that job-market conditions are poised to change. About half of job-seekers anticipate that the labor market will get worse over the next six months. Also, among those who found a new job after quitting, 42% say that it hasn\’t lived up to their expectations.\” These findings seem to correspond with our results that most people are staying put for now as they don\’t anticipate the grass being greener on the other side.
Time will tell what the next wave of workplace changes will look like, but for now, it seems like we won\’t be seeing a significant number of legal tech workers leaving their jobs without a solid job offer in hand.