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Forget the headlines, job recruiters and companies are finding skilled labor still hard to find in 2023.

“Ever since April of last year, I’ve seen an explosion in headlines about layoffs and warnings about the labor market being weaker than it appears … but these headlines don’t align with what I, as a recruiter, am experiencing on the ground or even official labor market statistics,” writes Atta Tarki in Harvard Business Review on Jan. 30, 2023. “In fact, the economy in early 2023 is not being roiled by layoffs — which are currently abnormally low compared to historical standards. This means the labor market remains really tight, despite arguments to the contrary.”

Try to glean anything out of the 24/7 media spin regarding the economic outlook for the next year and it will be one word: recession, recession, recession.

The U.S. economy faces a multitude of challenges including the continuing COVID-19 pandemic, spiraling inflation, and worldwide supply chain issues. Add to that list a lack of skilled tradesmen in the workforce that has industry experts concerned.

Light industrial jobs generally require less experience and training than other sectors, but skills assessment tests can be useful to successfully match applicants with the right employment opportunities.

Employers fulfilling light industrial staffing orders, especially those on the most demanding shifts, must pay close attention to details such as common sense problem-solving, ability to function with minimal supervision, and workplace attitudes towards issues such as punctuality, safety and drug use.

The most iconic industrial jobs involve heavy equipment and massive footprints in sectors such as aerospace, chemical production, infrastructure construction, machine tool building, mining, oil and gas, shipbuilding, and steel production.