The reality today is that there is a high unemployment rate. There are many people out there looking for jobs. Speaking recently with managers and business owners I have found two interesting, yet opposing situations. On the one hand, I have spoke with many managers who have found that they get an overwhelming amount of applications for positions. These are usually positions that do not require specific education or much experience. For example, I was speaking to the HR Manager of a large store and she told she had 300 applications for 1 cashier position. A hotel that recently opened had over 600 applications for about 20 positions. A new restaurant had over 1200 applications for about 60 positions. In all cases they had people with years of experience and degrees applying for jobs that required little, if any, experience and only a high school diploma in many cases. These were people that had lost their jobs due to the economy and wanted to get back into the workforce. On the other hand, I have spoken with other managers that find it hard to hire even in these times. They are usually in industries that require a certain amount of technical training and/or experience to do the job. They have found that many of the people that worked in these types of jobs and were now laid off were more comfortable at home collecting unemployment. They are waiting for unemployment compensation to run out to start looking for work. The question, will there be work when they start looking? And if there is not, what will they do?
The situation of the economy and all of these lay offs have had an effect on the way businesses are run here in the US and around the world. I recently read an article in the World Trade Center of Central PA Business Intelligence Brief newsletter titled "Future of Employment Changing Drastically." The article say that "there are somewhere 15 million and 30 million people who are currently unemployed or underemployed." Yet "at the same time there has been a study that suggests that there will be a major employee shortage by 2018 as the economy will be demanding close to 22 million educated workers when the education system is only turning out about 19 million". It goes on to mention the importance of education and training in meeting these needs. It will be more important than ever to have an education to be successful in the workplace.
The article has a lot of very interesting facts on the way the workforce is going to change and who is going to able to benefit from it. You can see the article on the June 16 edition of the Business Intelligence Brief.
What has been your experience in trying to hire recently? Do you have many applicants, or are you struggling to find someone? Do you think it has to do with the type of position and the requirements? Does education play a factor?
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We are rapidly hiring at Target, looking for quality employees. The problem we run into is individuals, some over qualified looking for 40 hours a week cashiering. Unfortunately that doesn't really fit the need of the business. We know that the second something better in the person's actual career field comes along they will leave. Then, we will have wasted our time training these employees only to have to recruit, interview, and train someone new! It's more important to look for the right person to fit into our store, who we believe will stick around for awhile.
ReplyDeleteYou bring up alot of good points. I have found that in sales there are always people looking for work. Given the economy recently many people are out of work. Most of the time the sales force is the last to be let go, but in the pharmaceutical/medical industry there have been many layoffs. Multiple pharmaceutical companies just had major layoffs of their sales forces.
ReplyDeleteI am currently hiring for about 25-30 different positions... and I am only one of five recruiters. I recuit from part-time customer service positions to school director positions.. requiring minimum expereience to a preferred Bachelor's degree in a related field as well as years of experience. In all of the positions, I am receiving resumes from people of all backgrounds. Many candidates have been both under and over qualified. I had recently received a resume for a School Counselor position from a person with a degree in Geology.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, I also am recruiting for Direction of Education positions that require certain licenses (cosmetology license and cosmetology instructor license) that are extremely difficult to find in candidates. For these positions, I have done numerous postings on numerous websites and/or newspapers with no applicants. I have also searched sites for candidates and have contacted them directly.
It seems as though positions that do not require technical licenses/training I am drowning in resumes but the more technical positions have been much more difficult.