Major League Baseball (MLB) approaches the last third of the season and most teams have a goal to be in the playoffs and win the World Series (except for our beloved Red Sox!!!). The LA Dodgers have the highest payroll ($273M) and the Houston Astro’s have the 2nd lowest ($63M) out of the 30 MLB teams. They have built their teams from 2 different perspectives yet both are leading their respective divisions and should be favorites to be playing in late October (again unlike our beloved Red Sox!!!). Just like the MLB, local employers also need a blueprint for their success and need to deal with a healthy economy and low unemployment rates (NH and MA) as they build their teams to meet their deliverables. According to the July Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rates in New Hampshire (3.8%) and Massachusetts (4.6%) have held steady from the previous month and both are down from the first of the year (NH- 4.0% and Ma 5.1%). The days of the high unemployment rates in 2009/2010 (NH reached 6.3% and MA hit a high of 8.9%) are long gone. The talent who are looking for employment opportunities seems to have diminished considerably and when they do make themselves available for new opportunities, they are not on the market for long. Employers need to react quickly or lose. Although working as a contract employee still has soft benefits (i.e. working on new technologies, being able to pick/choose the types of projects you want to work on, and make choices based on job locations) and now hard benefits (i.e. Earned Sick Time benefits in MA), the pay rates for some of these positions have NOT kept up with the pay scale of a “direct employee”. It’s still not unusual for client employers who want to offer potential contract employees LESS money than their fulltime workforce who do similar roles. Hence these employers don’t get the high-level/marquis players. They get serviceable (at times) role/bit players who are not long term solutions but produce for the short time needed. We are now at the crossroads where Employers, who are struggling to fill their open positions and want to be “winning in October”, must decide if they want to be a LA Dodger, Houston Astro, or Boston Red Sox. Do you go out and pay placement fee’s to lure the “Tier 1 Free Agents” and build your own Dream Team, do you go after a less cost and more short term value route of going after more mid market talent who are able to produce but no track record of long term success (see Brock Holt) or do nothing , hope and pray for Morgan Magic (for those non Red Sox youngsters- In 1988 Joe Morgan, took over as the interim manager for the last place Red Sox at the All Star Break and the team won 19-20 games to win the AL EAST). Employers need to act and make a decision. Two of the three options make sense. If you wait and do nothing (like the Red Sox did at the trading deadline!!!), your team will be looking up from the bottom of the standings wishing you were playing in October!!!! Paul Rojee - Managing Partner (Franklin)