Posted on 06/19/2012 12:15:12 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Last week’s disappointing unemployment report has refocused attention on the question of why, despite modest signs of economic recovery in recent months, American companies aren’t hiring.
Indeed, some of the most puzzling stories to come out of the Great Recession are the many claims by employers that they cannot find qualified applicants to fill their jobs, despite the millions of unemployed who are seeking work. Beyond the anecdotes themselves is survey evidence, most recently from Manpower, which finds roughly half of employers reporting trouble filling their vacancies.
The first thing that makes me wonder about the supposed “skill gap” is that, when pressed for more evidence, roughly 10% of employers admit that the problem is really that the candidates they want won’t accept the positions at the wage level being offered. That’s not a skill shortage, it’s simply being unwilling to pay the going price.
But the heart of the real story about employer difficulties in hiring can be seen in the Manpower data showing that only 15% of employers who say they see a skill shortage say that the issue is a lack of candidate knowledge, which is what we’d normally think of as skill. Instead, by far the most important shortfall they see in candidates is a lack of experience doing similar jobs. Employers are not looking to hire entry-level applicants right out of school. They want experienced candidates who can contribute immediately with no training or start-up time. That’s certainly understandable, but the only people who can do that are those who have done virtually the same job before, and that often requires a skill set that, in a rapidly changing world, may die out soon after it is perfected.
(Excerpt) Read more at business.time.com ...
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MORE OBSERVATIONS:
Employers don’t want to provide any training for new hires — or even any time for candidates to get up to speed. A 2011 Accenture survey found that only 21% of U.S. employees had received any employer-provided formal training in the past five years. Does it make sense to keep vacancies unfilled for months to avoid having to give new hires with less-than-perfect skills time to get up to speed?
Employers further complicated the hiring process by piling on more and more job requirements, expecting that in a down market a perfect candidate will turn up if they just keep looking.
One job seeker I interviewed in my own research described her experience trying to land “one post that has gone unfilled for nearly a year, asking the candidate to not only be the human resources expert but the marketing, publishing, project manager, accounting and finance expert. When I asked the employer if it was difficult to fill the position, the response was ‘yes but we want the right fit.’”
Or blend of all three.
THIS, IA M AWARE OF:
most employers now use software to handle job applications, adding rigidity to the process that screens out all but the theoretically perfect candidate. Most systems, for example, now ask potential applicants what wage they are seeking — and toss out those who put down a figure higher than the employer wants. That’s hardly a skill problem. Meanwhile, applicants are typically assessed almost entirely on prior experience and credentials, and a failure to meet any one of the requirements leads to elimination.
THIS, I AM AWARE OF:
most employers now use software to handle job applications, adding rigidity to the process that screens out all but the theoretically perfect candidate. Most systems, for example, now ask potential applicants what wage they are seeking — and toss out those who put down a figure higher than the employer wants. That’s hardly a skill problem. Meanwhile, applicants are typically assessed almost entirely on prior experience and credentials, and a failure to meet any one of the requirements leads to elimination.
In some ways I can understand. Recent college graduates are people my age who all think they’re entitled to a corner office and six weeks vacation on their first day of work. This is because they’ve had a lifetime of people telling them how ‘special’ they are. Then they end up resenting their employer because the boss only cares about performance and those evil things called ‘profits’. Not one thought is given to recognizing just how special the new hire is.
If I were an employer I’d be reluctant to hire anyone my age, too.
No, the going price is the price being offered. It's unwillingness to accept the going price. Applicants don't set the price for their ability.
I read a discussion of this topic and one of the comments was this is not HR’s fault. Most HR types have been layed off with the rationalization that software can do the same job for nothing.
I see this a lot (I'm looking for work). What makes me wonder about these employers is why they don't promote someone in-house (most positions I see advertised have a Supervisor or "II" after the title).
There's too many positions requiring many and very specific skills for all but a very few to qualify for. Employers are asking just a little too much, especially for what they're willing to pay.
One more thing: how is it that Americans "don't have the required skills" but foreigners do?
While there is some truth to the ridiculouness of some hiring practices in a bad economy, IS THIS ARTICLE NOT EXCUSING THE PERSON WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE BAD ECONOMY, and now blaming private employers for his epic fail?
Wasn’t there a recent article on FR that the off shore oil companies can’t find enough employees to pass a drug test?
So is that true or is it an excuse?
This is from TIME magazine, one of the most left leaning liberal trash publications in existence.
Quoting this progressive rag here is only good for laughs.
Not always true. Try hiring a marketing director for $30K and see what you get.
A refreshingly funny ad I saw was for a customer service representative that assisted customers over the phone. The job requires 6 months customer service phone experience, but paid for a 6 week training program (yes, 6 weeks!).
ping to a pointlessly and ignorantly smug post of yours from a few days ago
A family friend is in charge of the Machine Tool trades at the local community college. 2 year program.. Starting pay? 9-10.00 an hour upon graduation...People can make more working at McDees.
Many times when ever I see an employer complaining about not finding people it's because they don't pay didly crap..Of course they can pay what they want..juts don't bitch about it when you can't find anyone wanting to work for that amount of money.
Uh, actually, no. If an employer isn’t willing to pay the ‘going rate’, then they aren’t going to fill the position.
If you want someone with 10 years of experience, you’re not going to get them by paying what they made 20 years ago.
What they are going to get are the entry level folks, the same folks they don’t want to train.
The solution is simple.
1, train one of the new hires.
2, raise the wage.
I find that employers promote the most inept employee. Its the ones that work hard and make less are left on the bottom wrung. And in this economy, you’d be crazy to voluntarily leave a job.
I hire computer programmers, a programmer is a programmer, regardless of the language.....even if he isn’t totally familiar with Language X, I know a good programmer can pick it up very quickly, after looking at the source code.
You are right there. To expand on this a bit, the reason companies cannot find the right candidate is because:
1. HR now uses screening software that eliminates anyone sho doesn’t have the exact specs in their resumes. (Everything needs to be in the first 500 words)
2. HR no longer knows how to read a resume and determine the wheat from the chafe.
3. Managers tell HR to pick 5 resumes out of the hundred, schedule phone interviews and go from there. You don’t like any of the 5, get another 100 resumes.
4. Managers are not seeing the resumes. When I was a manager, I told HR I wanted to see every resume. I screened the person who was going to work for me.
5. This is the biggest.. Education. People who are fully qualified to do the job are eliminated because they do not have a degree. I have lost over 50 jobs in the last 3 years because of this. And that is with certifications.
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