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Faced with the immediate
task of finding enough workers to fill 5,000 jobs, the chief
executive officer of a new 2,000 room casino in Atlantic City
isn’t convinced the labor shortage is over. With a grand opening looming
just weeks ahead, only 100 people have been hired.
By next summer, 12,000 new
workers will be needed to fill all the jobs being created by
new casinos and retail centers.
You think Atlantic City is
an isolated case? Think again. Wal-Mart,
bucking the trend of many employers, has plans to hire about
800,000 new hires by 2007 bringing its total employee count to
over 2 million. That’s
more employees than the population for the U.S. Armed
Forces.
And
only four
months away from the deadline to fill over 30,000 airport
screeners, the Transportation Security Administration has
hired less than 10,000
individuals.
What is
likely no big surprise to any manager who has attempted to
hire employees over the past five years, this is what the TSA
is learning about the pool of available workers:
Many of the candidates, including individuals currently
holding the position, can’t meet even very basic
qualifications such as proficiency in English and basic
customer service skills.
Companies that have any
plans to expand their workforce or fill vacancies as employees
leave are finding that few people are qualified to fill the
new positions or replace departing employees.
This current state of the
workforce could be described as “worker dearth”.
Worker dearth has two
aspects. First is the quantitative factor. The pool of
available employees, although currently larger than it has
been for the past several years, is expected to be drained as
soon as the economy heats up. Second and even more
troubling is the qualitative aspect. The number of people
who lack even the most basic life skills such as showing up
for work on time is increasing, not to mention the lack of
employees who have adequate communication and interpersonal
skills and the technical skills required for most jobs
today.
The fallout from worker
dearth is beginning to takes its toll on those employees
currently working.
Specifically:
1.
Productivity is up because the loyal employee is being
asked to do more.
2. Jobs are not getting done and administrative
work is piling up.
3.
Higher level employees are doing jobs that should
be delegated.
4. And more people are burning up (stress is high) and
burning out (morale is low) due to work overload.
Although more people may
be looking for jobs, the number of entry-level jobs exceed the
number of people available in the millions and the number of
people who have the skills, proficiency and motivation to do
higher level jobs is a drop in the bucket compared to the
number of jobs available.
The Perfect Labor Storm may have veered off course
for a while but it is growing larger and stronger. If the Perfect Labor
Storm had a punch in the late 1990s, it will pack a wallop the
next time around.
News
and Views from and about SPS
-
When Susan Can't
Sell - September, 2002, B2B
-
Think
Twice: Crystal Gazing and the Future of
Work - Workforce, September 2002
Ira Wolfe, Founder of Success
Performance Solutions, was interviewed by Todd Raphael,
editor of Workforce
-
Cross-training makes
a strapping staff - August 16,
2002, Central
Penn Business Journal
-
Visions Marketing Sees
Clear Results with SELECT - August,
2002
-
Past Issues of The Total View
-
Read the Labor Storm Alert -
September, 2002
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