We’ve previously talked about the emerging skilled labor shortage in the United States and elsewhere. Our recent contacts with customers confirm that the skilled labor shortage is already here, a reality for many companies in the title insurance industry.
People will choose jobs that are most fulfilling to them; wages will rise, benefits will increase; people will choose jobs based on desire rather than need – easy to do when they have their pick of jobs. Choosing a location may become as important as the job itself – I want my children to grow up as/where I did; my spouse really likes that house by the lake; the schools are so much better in a particular city; my parents are in need of our help and it’s not possible for the parents to move; a medical center that specializes in a disease is located in a particular city.
Beyond the personal preferences, people will choose to work in exciting industries located in exciting places – the disruptive start up in San Francisco; a hot biotech in San Diego; the cool fashion design company in New York – people will choose jobs where they can make a difference and progress financially and professionally.
The title insurance industry is not exciting. It is a small industry and most title agencies are family owned or subsidiaries of large underwriters. While the industry is crucial to a prosperous, sophisticated economy, it has never offered a chance to change the world. The title insurance industry also does not offer the financial upside of a scalable enterprise. The skilled labor shortage will hurt the title insurance industry and title companies will have to evaluate automating and outsourcing parts of the work flow. The underwriters have already begun to do so.
We believe that the skilled labor shortage will affect many countries. In China, in the Philippines, in Singapore, all over South and Southeast Asia, worldwide economic growth will create interesting spaces for the best operations to thrive and to take advantage of powerful technology tools – the ability to manipulate large data sets, enormous data storage on the cloud, artificial intelligence tools and the high-speed connectivity.
When you start to see signs of the labor shortage in your area, please reach out to us. See how we can quickly begin to help with final policies, outsourcing search packages or other parts of your daily work load. We’ve been working with the title insurance industry since 1989.