Implement Creative Strategy to Prevent Talent Imbalance

When it comes to talking numbers in this current state of double dip recessions and deflation reemergence, the numbers game can seem pretty daunting. With some of the highest jobless rates in history, and many companies searching to fill empty positions, where are all the workers? In a recent article from HCI.org, blog author Michael DeMarco discusses just this.

From the front page of The Wall Street Journal, an article titled “Some Firms Struggle to Hire Despite High Unemployment”, by Mark Whitehouse, notes that with a 9.5% jobless rate and some 15 million Americans looking for work, many employers are inundated with applicants. But a surprising number say they are getting an underwhelming response, and many are having trouble filling open positions.

Now, what’s scarier than extensions of jobless benefits and homeowners owing more on their houses than they are worth is that “Longer-term trends are at play”:

Whitehouse explains, “For one, the U.S. education system  hasn’t been producing enough people with the highly specialized skills that many companies, particularly in manufacturing, require to keep driving productivity gains.”

Unfortunately for us, this trend is not about to change. This talent imbalance is a long-term trend – there will be a shortage of skills, not just workers. The U.S. Department of Labor predicts that U.S.-based employers will need 30 million new college-educated workers in the next decade, while only 23 million young adults are expected to graduate from college.

Jeanne Meister and Karie Willyerd, authors of The 2020 Workplace: How Innovative Companies Attract, Develop, and Keep Tomorrow’s Employees Today, recommend ten initiatives for building the sort of corporate culture that will attract the best and the brightest as the generational balance of the workplace shifts.

To read more about how to overcome the generational work-force gap in your organization, you can read the full article here.

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