Link: Job Market Remains a Puzzle.
If you have skill, talent, experience and credentials and still can't find a job - that hurts. But when prospective employers say they have unfilled openings because they can't find people with the requisite skill, talent, experience and credentials (e.g., YOU) - that can be simply maddening.
But employers are claiming - and complaining - that they can't find the skill-sets they need for the jobs they have open. More to the point - as one source points out in this story - they can't find people willing to work for the wages being offered. Could it be that the "skills shortage" is really a shortage of imagination?
"When a business says shortage, they really mean they are finding it
difficult to obtain labor at the wage they are accustomed to paying,"
said Richard DeKaser, chief economist at National City Bank."
It appears that the emerging trend is that employers want perfection walking through the door.
"Companies spend 50 times more recruiting a candidate than they do
training them after they’re hired, according to Deloitte Research. Only
37 percent of central Ohio companies provide general skills training
beyond an initial orientation."
Low-skilled entry-level jobs are often among the first to be automated or out-sourced. The entry-level bar is continually raised. So the new "entry-level" requires more skill and knowledge than ever before.
"Many unskilled manufacturing jobs have been replaced with jobs
requiring advanced math and computer skills, according to the National
Association of Manufacturers.
The group said 90 percent of
manufacturers are suffering from a shortage of skilled workers such as
machinists and technicians, in part because of trouble recruiting young
workers to replace skilled retirees."
Without some change and better planning, the situation will only get worse. "The U.S Department of Education estimates only 20 percent of the U.S.
population will have the skills needed to perform 60 percent of the
jobs in coming years."
Even though productivity increases have reduced the number of workers needed in some areas - the fact is that the retirement of the baby-boom generation is going to create a huge vacuum in most job categories
The lesson from this story comes back to both sides of the equation. Prospective employees need to prepare with more training (and continuous updating of knowledge and skills). But employers may have to re-think their attitudes about training. If everyone remains unwilling to invest in employees because they might move to a different employer, there will most likely be an increasing crisis. A community perspective - and communication among all players in the employment landscape, including employees, employers and government - might make for healthier attitudes about investment in people - whose thinking-power and creativity remain the most important asset in any enterprise.
(The print story in The Columbus Dispatch contains a chart showing the "fastest growing jobs" and the "most job openings" in Ohio. This chart was not made available online, but the same information is available at the Ohio IT Clearinghouse Workforce Data site, with projections for local city-regions in Ohio, and through 2014.)
(-- originally posted by Rich Bowers, Coordinator, Ohio IT Clearinghouse)
