Soni Spotlight Q1 Newsletter
The labor market continues to show resilience, with solid job gains across key sectors to kick off the new year. Healthcare, retail, and social assistance led employment growth, while wages saw a steady increase. As businesses adapt to shifting workforce trends, understanding these changes is essential for staying competitive. Here’s a breakdown of the latest employment highlights and what they mean for you.
Key Employment Highlights:
Nonfarm Payrolls added 143,000 jobs in January, with gains in healthcare, retail trade, and social assistance.
Healthcare expanded by 44,000 jobs, with growth in hospitals (+14,000), nursing and residential care facilities (+13,000), and home health care services (+11,000).
Retail Trade added 34,000 jobs, with increases in general merchandise retailers (+31,000) and furniture/home furnishings retailers (+5,000), while electronics and appliance retailers saw a decline (-7,000).
Social Assistance grew by 22,000 jobs, driven by individual and family services (+20,000) and community food, housing, and emergency relief services (+4,000).
Government jobs continued to trend up by 32,000, maintaining steady growth similar to the 2024 monthly average.
Average hourly earnings rose by 0.5% to $35.87, reflecting an annual growth rate of 4.1%.
Unemployment edged down to 4.0%.
What This Means for You:
The labor market kicked off 2025 with steady growth, reinforcing stability across key sectors. While job creation remains strong in healthcare, retail, and social assistance, shifts in mining and retail electronics suggest evolving workforce dynamics. At Soni, we excel at connecting businesses with top talent to adapt to these shifts. Let us help you find the skilled professionals who will fuel your success in the coming months.
Awareness + Accountability = Autonomy: A Formula for Trusted Leadership
Autonomy is one of the most sought-after qualities in any team—the ability for individuals to take initiative, make decisions, and solve problems independently while aligning with the team’s goals. However, autonomy doesn’t just happen by chance. It requires a thoughtful and intentional approach from leaders.
Steven Robinson , a respected leader and visionary, developed a simple yet powerful concept that ensures trusted autonomy within teams: Awareness + Accountability = Autonomy. This formula is a game-changer for leaders striving to empower their teams while maintaining alignment with broader objectives. Let’s break it down.
Awareness: Building the Foundation of Trust
By definition, awareness is the "knowledge or perception of a situation or fact." For leaders, awareness means staying engaged with your team members. This involves understanding:
What they are working on.
The goals they are pursuing.
The language they use to communicate with clients and colleagues.
Their schedules and work patterns.
Spending time to cultivate awareness can feel time-intensive at first, but it’s an investment that pays dividends in the form of long-term autonomy. It’s also the opportunity to instill awareness in your team members:
Awareness of team goals.
Awareness of their colleagues’ roles and responsibilities.
Awareness of their own actions, performance metrics, and areas for improvement.
When leaders embody awareness and emphasize its importance to their team members, it fosters a culture of trust. Awareness becomes the shared foundation for informed decision-making and collaboration.
Accountability: The Next Step to Autonomy
Accountability often gets confused with responsibility, but it’s much more. It’s about clearly defining expectations and the consequences of not meeting them. Leaders must communicate:
What deliverables each team member is responsible for.
Who is counting on these deliverables (e.g., the sales team, operations, or clients).
The potential ripple effects if deliverables are not completed on time or to standard.
Equally important is helping team members understand their own expectations for others. Who are they relying on? How would a failure to hold others accountable impact their work or the team’s goals? By framing accountability as a two-way street, leaders create a culture where everyone takes ownership of outcomes and supports one another in achieving them.
From Awareness and Accountability to Autonomy
Once awareness and accountability are firmly established, autonomy follows. Here’s why:
Clarity eliminates uncertainty: With awareness, there are no hidden objectives. Team members understand what’s expected of them and how their work impacts the larger picture.
Ownership fosters problem-solving: Accountability encourages team members to own their roles and responsibilities, driving them to find solutions rather than excuses.
Trust empowers action: When leaders trust their team members to act with awareness and accountability, it empowers individuals to make decisions confidently and independently.
This is where a team transforms from a group of individuals working toward a shared goal to a cohesive unit of problem solvers ensuring those goals are met. At this stage, failure is no longer an option because everyone is committed to success and supports one another along the way.
Final Thoughts
Steven Robinson’s formula, Awareness + Accountability = Autonomy, is a straightforward yet profound approach to leadership. It shows that autonomy isn’t granted blindly; it’s built intentionally through trust, clarity, and mutual accountability.
As leaders, if we dedicate time to fostering awareness and instilling accountability, we’ll see our teams evolve into strong, independent decision-makers and problem solvers—driving not only their own success but the success of the entire organization.
So ask yourself: Are you cultivating awareness in your team? Are you defining and upholding accountability? The time you invest in these two steps today will create a foundation of trusted autonomy for tomorrow.
Reflecting on an Incredible Quarter at Soni
As we wrap up the quarter, it’s amazing to reflect on all the meaningful moments and events that brought our teams together and allowed us to make an impact beyond the office.
This past quarter has been a true testament to our values—fostering connections, giving back, and supporting one another as a team. Here’s to more moments like these as we head into the next quarter! 🎉✨
Introducing the Soni Creative Strategic Division: Expanding Our Reach Nationwide
We are thrilled to announce the launch of the Soni Creative Strategic Division, an exciting and logical next step for the Creative Team at Soni Resources. Under the leadership of Breanna Johnson , this division is poised to transform how we support our clients’ digital marketing and creative needs.
With a solid foundation built, the team has established a robust infrastructure that ensures success. Collectively, this team have over 70+ years of experience finding staffing solutions for their clients and candidates.
The Soni Creative Strategic Division is committed to partnering with each Soni team member to identify and maximize opportunities in the creative space. Together, we’ll ensure our clients receive unparalleled support in their creative endeavors.
They have a nationwide vision for assisting their clients in this new day and age of AI, Brand Purpose, and Design Thinking.
As we embark on this exciting new chapter, we invite you to collaborate with the Creative Strategic Division to unlock potential and deliver impactful solutions for your clients. Let’s continue to grow and innovate—together!
One More Call Away: Jon’s Story of Perseverance
For Jonathan Royce , success is built on resilience—a lesson he learned from his mother, a single parent who sacrificed everything to give him a better life. "My mom taught me that hard work is the only way to get what you want," he says, crediting her relentless determination for shaping his work ethic.
That mindset was put to the test in 2018 when Jon took a leap to help launch a start-up. Just as things were gaining momentum, the company’s founder suffered severe health issues, and all funding was pulled. "I found myself without a job overnight—right after getting married, buying a house, and with my wife also out of work," he recalls. Instead of giving in to uncertainty, he pivoted quickly—consulting, networking, and taking a commission-heavy role to rebuild from the ground up. "It was tough, but I came out stronger."
One piece of advice that has guided him through tough times came from a mentor who told him, "True success is always one more phone call away." That belief has fueled his perseverance throughout his career, including his journey at Soni. "When I joined, it was just a small group in NYC with big dreams. Watching it grow, while growing alongside it, has been one of my proudest achievements."
For Jon, success isn’t just personal—it’s about honoring his mother’s sacrifices and building a future for his own family. His advice for those starting out? "Perseverance, determination, and grit are everything. When things get hard, double down. Keep pushing forward, because the breakthrough is always one step away
We are here to support you and your department with any direct hire, project-based, or temporary staffing needs. If you or someone in your department is looking to hire, please contact info@soniresources.com or (646) 688-3020.
If you are interested in exploring your next career opportunity, visit the Soni Career Page.