Pick up a copy of the May 11, 2009 issue of Business Week, and on the cover you’ll see a Hermann Miller chair with a gigantic sign perched on it that reads, “Help Wanted.” The caption declares, “the US has 3 million job openings” and goes on to tease us with the line, “why that may not be good for the [US] economy.”
All in all, the article (available here) was fairly tame, and suggested that the three million job openings in the US remain open due to these key factors:
- There are a glut of workers who have less marketable skills (manufacturing), and those jobs will never return to pre-recession levels.
- The housing market is preventing these displaced workers from migrating to geographic areas where they could become employable.
- Displaced workers are unwilling to decend the economic ladder and settle for “underemployment.”
I agree with author Peter Coy on points #1 and #2. It’s point #3 with which I take exception. My experience in working with clients over the past 90 days has shown that candidates are more than willing to settle for underemployment. Talk to anyone in the corporate recruiting or HR space and they’ll tell you the same thing. Unemployed workers - whether they be hourly or salaried - are downright desperate for work these days.
One of the article’s call-outs shows a dotted-line cutout of a person standing at a fast food counter, leaning forward in a “would you like fries with that” stance, next to a blurb that says, “Fast food jobs are plentiful in North Dakota, but few people apply for them.” That’s a really awful example - North Dakota is one of the least-populated states in the Union. The state is hardly a proxy for national employment trends, and fast food jobs don’t require specifc skills. The example offered doesn’t support the author’s argument that people are hard to find.
Another quote stands out, as well. The author cites the recent news out of IBM that they’ll be adding 4,000 specialists to perform data analysis. The article quotes Jim Spoher, Director of University Programs at IBM, saying, “It’s really easy to find people that are 50% of what you are looking for. It’s really hard to find people that are 90% of what you are looking for. This is a real dilemma.”
Of course it’s a dilemma. Hiring people with 90% of everything you need is a tough prospect in any economy. If’ I’m trying to hire 4000 people in any skill set within a short period of time, I’m going to have a talent shortage simply because I want the top 10% of the talent available in the market. Great companies always face a talent shortage, because they only hire great people.
The article did offer up one quote that I felt was spot-on from a content standpoint. Mark Mehler, co-Founder of CareerXRoads, was commenting on the reality facing many companies - that the candidates companies are seeking may not exist - and explained, “You’re hiring potential…You’ve got ot train them.” Amen to that.
BHT Quality Rating: B-
