It should be easy!

• Unemployment at 8.9%.
• We all know someone in transition.
• Studies show people want a new job.
• AND - who wouldn't want to work for my company!

Jobs Open, but Filling Them Slows Down

That is a title of a recent Wall Street Journal article (March 7, 2011) article.  Couple that with a SHRM headline about a slight increase in the Recruiting Difficulty Index and you have a perplexing question.

But 8.9%?  I should be able to easily pick my next employee.

According to SHRM, both the manufacturing and service sectors had increased difficulty in finding the people they need.  The index referenced above measures "how difficult it is for firms to recruit candidates to fill the positions of greatest strategic importance to their companies."  The SHRM conclusion is that the increase in the difficulty index may be the result of new or enhanced skill requirements. The Wall Street article points to a two-fold issue:

1. Recruiters are having trouble finding candidates for skilled positions.
2. Once there are candidates, hiring managers are taking longer to come to a decision.

No conclusion to this yet - but interesting data

We as a search firm (and the search industry in general) are seeing this as well.

• Openings are on the increase.
• The Conference Board has been seeing an increase in job openings advertised online since spring 2009.

Hiring managers are holding out for more and better candidates.  A survey by the Corporate Executive Board found that managers are inviting in twice as many candidates for each job as they did in 2007.  Todd Safferstone, Director of CLC Recruiting, a unit of the Corporate Executive Board, states, 'Nowadays, if managers speak to a really great candidate, instead of hiring him, they take it as an indication that there must be 10 even better people out there." As I said, no conclusion yet.  Are we seeing the rebirth of the predicted War for Talent?  Is the reality of the 4.3% unemployment rate for people with a college degree (and are at least 25 years old) finally hitting home in this economy? More information in the future as it becomes available.