Job Seekers AND Employers Losing the Battle
August 20, 2009 by Colin
Filed under Entrepeneur, Friends
By J.T. O’Donnell
Job Seekers, I’ve got news for you: your skills are outdated, your experience doesn’t apply and you don’t fit the company culture…welcome to the current state-of-affairs in job search.
Don’t worry Employers, I’ve got news for you too: your standards are too high, the time and expense you spend in recruiting is too great and you are looking for talent that doesn’t exist…welcome to the current state-of-affairs in talent acquisition.
Don’t believe me? Then read this BusinessWeek article. FACT: We’ve got 13M+ people out of work and 3M+ open jobs – and climbing. Why? Because our talent doesn’t match the job openings:
“…it’s evidence of an emerging structural shift in the U.S. economy that has created serious mismatches between workers and employers. People thrown out of shrinking sectors such as construction, finance, and retail lack the skills and training for openings in growing fields including education, accounting, health care, and government.”
But wait, there’s more:
“As bad as it is now, the mismatch will create bigger problems when the economy begins to expand again. First, the unemployment rate is likely to remain distressingly high because many people who want jobs will lack the appropriate qualifications. Second inflation could pick up sooner than expected if employers are forced into bidding wars to recruit the few people who are qualified for the work…”
The article goes on to explain a new index to measure the challenges in the labor market. Referred to as the ‘Jobs Misery Index’ (I’m not kidding!), it is the sum of the unemployment rate and the jobs openings rate. Why should you care? Well, historically, this number has hung at 8%. But last spring, it started a steep ascent and is now over 10% and some suggest it could stay there, even when the economy starts to recover. One potential reason for it to stay high is the fact that many Americans won’t take jobs they feel are beneath them. Another is the inability (or desire) for talent to relocate i.e. job seekers with homes they can’t (or won’t) sell keep them stuck in a certain place. Yet, while the pride of workers and the immobility of talent hurts job placement rates for sure, the overwhelming factor remains that we’ve got a large pool of square-pegged job seekers who can’t fit into a round-holed workplace. Here’s an example:
Graduation season is approaching and soon millions of diploma-holding job seekers will start looking for work. Yet, without any practical work experience (a 2007 survey indicates that less than 30% of high school and college students work while in school, and those that do are rarely employed in professional settings), these job seekers will find it tough to get hired into corporate America. The ‘Catch 22′ of needing experience to get experience will leave many of these new grads in a professional stall pattern. And, when the economy rebounds, if companies aren’t willing to train them, the road to a satisfying career could be a long one.
Where does this leave us?
To read the rest of this one and other great articles by J.T. O’Donnell visit Careeralism:
Interesting article and I would imagine has a correlation to the continuing increase in people choosing the entrepreneurial path. They can not find employment or fulfillment in a corporation that wants to put a round peg in a square hole. People are taking the skills that they do have and finding a niche in the marketplace that they can provide value. Goodbye Jobs Misery Index and hello “What ever you want to call it” Index because you are now the boss.
In addition, these new small businesses increasingly have an opportunity to afford a higher level of talent than before and they can offer benefits other than just monetary. Flexible work hours, multidisciplinary roles and more autonomy that might be what the work force needs to get more experience and talent. More talent better opportunities???