The morning headlines today stated that Wall Street numbers fell on the most recent job data. Apparently what made that news worthy is that instead of the forecasted 125,000 jobs that were supposed to be added, there were only 96,000. So without the addition of 30,000 more jobs it rocked the markets some.
While everyone’s eye (at least Wall Street’s) is on additional jobs, what about all the existing jobs for which companies cannot find the right people? That is really more news worthy and it has much more impact on employers, job seekers and the economy.
Sure, job creation is very important. But it is immediately more important for companies that are struggling mightily to find the right qualified people for their current open positions. The question is why are open positions such a problem now?
A company that cannot fill its critical positions (you define critical position because it now has a very broad definition) is going to struggle either now or at some point between now and the end of the decade in achieving its goals and objectives.
• For a company not to meet its financial goals whether private or public creates uncertainty, concern, and a host of other issues.
• For a company not to be able to develop new products to stay ahead or keep up with its competition puts them at risk for losing ground.
• When initiatives are delayed or cancelled, the advantages they were to bring don’t happen. It may mean more costs, continued waste or some other negative position. Even if maintaining status quo is not detrimental, whose business can afford not to move forward today?
• What about the sales territory that needs a strong sales person to bring in new or more business? Who can afford not to take advantage of opportunity?
These situations and more are happening every day. They are happening more frequently than in past times. The reason is stated above; companies cannot find the right people for open positions.
Let’s review the reasons why again. From a purely numerical standpoint:
• There are approximately 6-7.5 million open professional positions in the United States. That is made up of advertised positions and unadvertised positions.
• The available talent pool of unemployed individuals 25 years old and older with a four-year degree or greater (professionals) is only 1.9 million. We are now where the Department of Labor was predicting a number of years ago, in a severe talent shortage.
• Traditionally a little over half of the unemployed are not looking for employment so that number can conservatively be 950,000 people available for 6-7.5 million open professional positions.
• The talent needed for employers is not going to come from there. It will come from other companies where the needed talent resides.
• Most companies are ill-equipped to find, attract and gain that talent.
Now let’s consider the job seeker. Those that are unemployed and seeking a job whether a professional, paraprofessional, skilled labor or trade, are equally ill-equipped to find a sustainable job.
Their practice is to create a resume, send a resume and wait for a response. That has never been a very good practice and now it is a broken practice. Just ask someone who is unemployed how many resumes they have sent, how many responses they have had and how many offers they have had. I will warn you to be prepared to duck because there are millions of frustrated job seekers who are very unsatisfied with their results.
The practice described above is passive, puts the employer in charge of an individual’s job search and is ineffective. So what do they need to do?
They have to follow sound fundamental practices that are proactive, productive and place the job seeker in charge of his or her job search. It is a series of steps executing the skills required. Each step builds upon the other and each produces progress.
If you are an employer struggling and need help, please feel free to contact us and we can provide relief in several different methods. The contact information is on the side of this blog site.
If you are a job seeker, you can go to www.CareerTalkGuys.com and learn more about why your practice is not creating the success you want and what will.
