Who Holds the Cards Now? Inside the Shifting Supply Chain Job Market
Introduction: Supply Chain Job Market Pendulum Swings Back Towards Employers
The supply chain job market has undergone a significant shift over the past 12–18 months. Just as talent shortages defined the post-COVID era, we’re now entering a more uncertain phase.
The pendulum has swung.
Demand signals are uneven.
Investment is under scrutiny.
And many professionals are asking the same question: What should I do now?
The supply chain market from 2019-2025 has undergone a lot of shifts. Supply chain employers were firmly in control in 2019, but that began to change during the pandemic. Supply chain skills and experience became highly sought after, and those with said talents could negotiate multiple competing job offers. That may no longer be the case for front office and higher-level personnel.
It’s not all doom and gloom. According to Harvard Business Review, the supply chain industry comprises over 44 million jobs People are still buying things, which means supply chain remains a preferred occupational discipline to enter and advance careers. The question is, who’s holding the trump cards in this ever-evolving landscape?
On the Ground: What We’re Hearing
Across our networks, here’s what’s coming through loud and clear:
Stress and worry among professionals are high because they are unsure how their company will respond to economic pressures.
Economic uncertainty has led to belt-tightening among many supply chain business leaders. Geopolitical trade tensions have led to price hikes, which create cautious responses to bottom-line concerns. Running lean on the labor side of a business is the surest way to trim costs and attempt to maintain profitability. Heightened attention to and scrutiny of labor costs prevent aggressive hiring moves. This also leads to a more conservative business approach because operational expansion is less likely when supply chain leaders can’t adequately forecast profit and loss amidst such upheaval.
We know times are changing because employers have gone from labor hoarding tactics in 2022 to leaner operations and hiring freezes in 2025. Consumer demand continues to force the hands of a lot of retailers and supply chain organizations. However, folks seem to be doing more with less right now. The question also becomes about whether supply chain companies will focus on labor retention and upskilling or engaging supply chain recruiters to do the hard work of finding top-tier talent. We’re also seeing hard data to support this. In 2025, SCM Talent Group has seen a 128% increase in resume submissions compared to the same period last year. We know things are fluid, it’s just a matter of how job seekers and employers are responding to these shifts.
Confidential job searches are on the rise, often from people who were stable a year ago.
We’re seeing more successful supply chain professionals conducting confidential job searches. They’re doing this out of an abundance of caution and concern. They are worried about how their employers will handle economic uncertainty, and they want to have a plan in place, in case they are a casualty of reduction-in-force efforts.
Cost pressure is reshaping priorities, from digital investments to hiring freezes.
A Business Wire article from late May detailed how a lot of companies are investing in AI across supply chains to counteract inflation and trade volatility. However, it’s becoming more difficult for companies to find the specialized talent needed to deploy a lot of these technologies.
Uncertainty breeds caution among both employers and employees.
As we have mentioned many times in the past, in uncertain times, hold the line. Don’t overreact or underreact. The companies that are most successful at weathering these storms are those that stay in the middle. Don’t overexpand in the good times and don’t slash and burn in the uncertain times. Supply chain management careers aren’t going anywhere. If anything, they’re increasing in value.
For employees, having contingency plans in place can’t hurt. But work to understand what your role is and how you can improve it. Work to increase your value in your current role through gap analysis, mentorship, and professional development if possible. If your goal is to accelerate your supply chain career, consider a lateral move out of your particular practice area. The road to the C-suite is paved with experiential knowledge. Do not be shy about seeking it.
There are winners and losers, and not always for obvious reasons.
We still see a durable supply chain job market, especially in core and emerging supply chain management roles. Warehouse roles continue to favor employees. There just aren’t enough people to fill the increased capacity of front-line operators. Additionally, a lot of the talent pipeline from universities is focused on machine learning and analytics. This leaves big gaps in operational roles.
Why the Landscape Feels Different (But Isn’t All Bad)
The pendulum swinging back doesn’t mean crisis—it means recalibration. We’re shifting from “just hire someone” to “hire right and develop internally.” Thin spots (e.g., generalist roles, transactional planning) are thinning further. Hot spots in supply chain labor market:
- supplier development
- Applied AI/Machine Learning
- network design
- sourcing
- automation
- Operations leadership.
Promotions are still happening—but often with strings attached: lateral moves, temporary assignments, or stretch roles with little clarity. Supply chain professionals have a lot more leverage than you may think based on the niche experience and the value placed on it.
Career Crossroads: Real Choices from Real People
Example 1: Blue-chip employee choosing between staying in a solid, skill-building role with high leadership equity or moving laterally to a new team. They stayed—investing in “learning in place.”
Hold yourself to a higher standard of performance. Find ways to diversify your skill sets and increase your value as an employee. Don’t be complacent with the status quo of check collecting and the bare minimum of checking off your duties every week. Try and go above and beyond to not only secure your current position but to put you in line for leadership roles in the not-so-distant future. Employers will be more likely to hire from within if they are able to spot ambitious and driven people ready to lead a team.
Example 2: Another professional is quietly exploring new opportunities, driven not by ambition but concern for the future of their business unit.
The common thread: disciplined career thinking is back. We saw a lot of bouncing around in the immediate aftermath of the Pandemic. Supply chain professionals knew they had leverage and were juggling multiple job offers. They could demand higher salaries and compensation packages because employers were having a lot of difficulty filling these roles. Similarly, employers had to adhere to a lot of these demands because they needed talent badly. Remote and hybrid working arrangements became commonplace in comp packages as the workers enjoyed more flexibility. That pendulum seems to have swung back in favor of the employer.
The uncertainty and chaos in global markets along with geopolitical upheaval has slowed investments and expansions. A lot of senior employees are watching this with caution, wondering if their salaries will be on the chopping block.
Your Professional Defense Plan: Back to Basics, But Smarter
Here’s what we’re advising talent (and practicing ourselves):
– Deliver in-role. Keep your base strong—results matter more in scrutiny cycles.
– Invest in your own development. Think 70/20/10: stretch tasks, coaching, structured learning.
– Expand and engage your network. This is not about spamming LinkedIn—it’s about value exchange.
– Calibrate your next move. Now is not the time to chase shiny objects. Only move if:
• The need is real (toxic culture, no development runway, clear misfit);
• The opportunity is clearly better (brand, growth, skill-building).
We cover a lot of these tactics in our Supply Chain Careers: Leadership Series. From recognizing your blind spots to increasing your personal productivity in your current role, we help mid-career professionals assert themselves in their current roles in a more effective manner. It’s all about how you lead yourself so that you can grow into a more effective team leader.
We also hear all the time about how the most important step to promotion is to overperform in your current role. While being ambitious can help with your career ladder, it can also prevent you from succeeding in the role you currently have. This isn’t necessarily the job market to be underperforming; that’s for sure.
Final Thought: The Next Swing Will Come
Markets cycle. Smart professionals don’t panic—they prepare. A recent Supply Chain Brain article even suggests that there is a significant talent and labor shortage in supply chain right now. It can totally depend on where you’re looking to see if this is the case. Today’s uncertain environment is not a dead end, it’s a proving ground. For those who invest in relationships, stay curious, and deliver consistently, the next upswing can be a launchpad—not a lifeboat.
