Moving Forward with Tomorrow’s Workforce

TalentManagement.com offers plenty of advice to talent managers about how to delicately deal with difficult situations. A recent blog post on the website directly discusses the U.S.’s notable unemployment rate. Author Mike Prokopeak writes that it was in due course that President Obama focused on job creation and economic growth in his State of the Union address.

People strongly believe that the government needs to augment job creation efforts, a recent study conducted by recruitment company Addecco Staffing indicates. Of the 1,000 adults surveyed, 95 percent said the Obama administration should be doing more to put people back to work.

Obama’s administration is taking steps to make job creation a priority. However, there are fundamental misalignments that are creating a gap between goals and results. One of the largest problems is that the jobs that are being created do not align with the skills of the people in the workforce. Globalization and technology have created structural changes in the U.S. economy which requires that the workforce’s skills and competencies must be re-matched to available jobs.

Large companies are outsourcing available jobs to cheaper labor abroad, and small businesses are having problems re-training skilled workers. Since large companies are outsourcing, a broad range of domestic jobs have become available to an under-skilled workforce.

It’s the new and emerging companies that create the majority of domestic jobs. President Obama alluded to the importance of supporting businesses in his speech when he highlighted Robert and Gary Allen, two brothers who retooled their Michigan roofing business to manufacture solar shingles. That’s a step, but the President and Congress need to back that up with action.

The good news is that talent managers can play a significant role here by making development and training spending a priority. One suggested tactic is tuition reimbursement or continuing education for workers. Try working with local training agencies, colleges, or universities to establish what skills are really necessary in your area, and then supplement your workers for learning these skills. The focus now should be on how to supplement new, up-and-coming jobs rather than trying to protect old jobs. To read more about how to take steps forward in this new economic state, click here for the full article.

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