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| | Worker shortages starting to affect labor market health
Saturday, Mar 12, 2005 By Wesley Brown As the Arkansas economy continues to recover, some industries are having difficulty finding qualified workers to fill open jobs. The persisting hue and cry for more school teachers, registered nurses and child care workers is well-documented and acknowledged. However, other occupations are joining the ranks of fast-growing jobs that are desperately seeking new workers. According to famed business futurists and management consultants Roger Herman and Joyce Gioia, a wide range of employers throughout the U.S. confirm that finding, recruiting and hiring qualified people is becoming more challenging. Herman and Gioia, who publish a weekly bulletin called the "Herman Trend Alert" that focuses on current workplace issues, say the number of job openings is increasing at all levels. "Recruiters are more aggressive now, seeking qualified people to work as executives, managers, technicians, production workers, salespeople, drivers, mechanics and many other jobs," Herman said. "One Fortune 500 company has 7,000 openings; another needs 8,000 over the next six months." In 2003, Herman, Gioia and co-author Tom Olivo wrote the book, "Impending Crisis: Too Many Jobs, Too Few People," which predicted that the dearth of younger workers will cause a 10 million shortfall in the U.S. work force by 2010. "We confirm our forecast that this year will see unprecedented employee turnover and serious shortages of skilled workers," Herman and Gioia wrote in their March 9 newsletter. Interestingly, the Arkansas Employment Security Department recently created a new Web site called Discover Arkansas, which culls together labor market information of every possible angle on the state of Arkansas. According to an ESD forecast, truck drivers and tractor trailer operators are projected to have the most new jobs openings in Arkansas through 2012, growing from 32,670 to 40,168. Meanwhile, seven of the top growth occupations are involved in sales, office and administrative support. The three major nursing occupations are all among the top 20 growing occupations, with registered nurses expected to gain 5,564 new jobs. Collectively, the 20 fastest-growing occupations in Arkansas, - which include cashiers, janitors and maids, customer service representatives and fast food personnel - are projected to make up over 34 percent of the overall growth through 2012. At the same, all of the jobs with the largest number of projected openings, which traditionally have high turnover and few benefits, appear nowhere near the top of the state's highest-paying occupations. Meanwhile, as some employers search to find younger workers to fill these jobs, other companies are seeking to keep older workers in the workplace longer. Last month, the AARP Foundation and 13 major U.S. companies announced a new program to help Americans aged 50 and over to stay in the work force. The new initiative, which includes employers such as Home Depot, Express Personnel services, Pitney Bowes and Walgreens, highlights companies that have committed to an aggressive program of recruiting, hiring, and retaining mature workers. AARP CEO Bill Novelli said that hundreds of thousands of inquiries have been received from AARP members and others interested in employment. "Mature workers will help employers to avert the labor shortages that will occur as boomers retire and fewer young workers enter the workplace," Novelli said. Still, many employers are going to have to grapple with the issue of better pay and issues like health care and job security or the impending worker shortage will only get worse. After all, there are very few workers, no matter the number of "we are hiring" or "help wanted" signs now posted, who wants to work in a dead-end job with no benefits, no satisfaction and no future. ------ Wesley Brown is business editor for the Arkansas News Bureau in Little Rock. His e-mail address is wbrown@arkansasnews.com. |
