Friday, August 19, 2011

US Unemployment Paradox of 9 Plus Percent Equals Economic Windfall, People Minus Jobs


The Stigma of Recession:
"The failure to match willing employers with appropriate workers is contributing to a jobless rate that has stalled around 9 percent or higher since April 2009 and is keeping the unemployed on the sidelines for longer. The rate was 9.1 percent in July, when payrolls rose by 117,000 workers after an increase of 46,000 a month earlier, the Labor Department said Aug. 5." (Ref. Bloomberg.com Article "Employers REady to Hire ..., By Vivien Lou Chen and Jillian Berman - Aug 7, 2011)

Why do Employers cannot find workers at 9.1 Percent of Unemployment?
On August 13th, 2011, Juntee Terrenal, MA, GMS - provided his insights (see below) to a similar question that was run at LinkedIn's Staffing Discussion Group, posted by Marjorie Liles PHR, a colleague in Human 
Resources:

"Agree with Valentino's inputs 100% (please go to LinkedIn and read the details).
One 'stigma' that employer's representative demonstrate is their inability to look through beyond resume. These people who are looking for specific resume formatting were not trained to pre-screen candidates who has the qualifications. On the other hand, many job seekers cannot afford to pay the cost of Resume Writing (an industry that always find its way in demand during the recession). The point is, resume review is not the only technique in finding the right person who will do the job. A conversation and discussion is a great option in exploring the competencies of people in performing particular job.

My observations, there are so many sloppy descriptions of jobs that do not demonstrate the realities of the functions. You can see that these were copied somewhere else in the internet as you read through the language and match to the company background and business.

Employers do not provide On-the-Job-Training:
"It is not hard for employer to provide an on-the-job training /orientation for people who are new into the industry. One of the problem that I have seen in many organizations - there are many individuals who don't have the ability to 'mentor new colleagues or they do not like to participate in this cross-training / mentoring newbees because of their fear of being eliminated. It is a self protection of their own comfort zone." The realities are ... when you provide a space ~ people are creative in learning new information and process. They will use their experiences and educational background to navigate their ways through adaptation in a new location. New environments are another segment of life where to use previous learnings.
More successful organizations demonstrate their initiatives and creativity in pooling talents and invest on their abilities. The bottom line, when employers say they cannot find talents from 9+% of unemployed, it is an excuse. There are many individuals around who may qualify to work the job that are being advertised. It is a matter of strategic approach and mindset among talent acquisition people and hiring managers in utilizing available resources of skills. Instead of using the usual 'assembly line mentality approach' in matching jobs and people."
A Follow up discussion on August 18th 2011:
"My views on this type of problem is to look at what are the reasons why prospective candidates are not liking the job. Many issues why the persistence of candidates of disliking the jobs are: (1) pay is lower than the required scope of the function, (2) location of the job is far from a willing candidate and the compensation is not commensurate to the distance of commuting, (3) the position might be too vague where the prospective candidates cannot determine their matching skills and will not waste their time to apply as they would not see any future progress of their application, (4) Job owners are looking for gods to do the job but they are not ready to pay the compensation of getting a 'god' for the job - meaning cheap employer like exceptional worker, (5) Experienced people are willing to do the job lower than their prior experiences but they deserve respect and value proposition (6) When candidates will make a research on the employer and find that the hiring employer have had issues with employees before - smart candidates will not take the risk of being associated with this type of employer, (7) technical skilled, non-skilled and labor workers know what they are worth and know the difference of good employer from the bad. (8) job descriptions may not be demonstrating the correct functional responsibilities, (9) hiring managers may not have the right mindset and readiness to fill their job vacancy, (10) Recruiter may not have the right techniques and innovative skills in finding the right candidate for the job.

My suggestion is to look through beyond what is going on. There seems to be an evidence of facts that are contributing to the hurdles of not finding the right individual to work for those jobs. Or may be consider some external help that might provide better options.

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