Tag Archives: recovery

McKinsey Report Highlights Task Ahead for U.S. Workforce

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A new report from the McKinsey Global Institute projects a daunting task ahead for the U.S. economy: create 21 million jobs by 2020. Oh, and in the near term, we also still need to get 7 million people back to work who are victims of the 2008-09 recession. Chief among possible solutions will be adequate training our workforce to fill vacant jobs in the future. That’s likely why Kris Deckard, executive director of Ready Indiana, was interviewed for the report.

McKinsey relays:

The research analyzes the causes of slow job creation in the period before the recession and during the recovery and the implications of these forces for future job growth. The research projects how the US labor force will evolve over the next ten years and creates different scenarios for job growth based on extensive analysis of sector trends. MGI’s central finding is that a return to full employment will occur in only the most optimistic job growth scenario. This will require not only a robust economic recovery, but also a concerted effort to address other factors that impede employment, including growing gaps in skill and education.

The report offers a range of illustrative solutions based on lessons from US states and other countries that MGI hopes will add to the national conversation on jobs. Findings include:

Recoveries are increasingly becoming "jobless" due to firm restructuring, skill and geographic mismatches between workers and jobs, and sharp decline in new start-ups.

The US needs to create 21 million new jobs by 2020 to regain full employment – and only achieves this in our most optimistic job growth scenario.

The US workforce will continue to grow until 2020, but under current trends, many workers will not have the right skills for the available jobs. Technology is changing the nature of work: jobs are being disaggregated into tasks, work is becoming virtual, and firms are relying on flexible labor (temporary, contract workers). These trends offer new opportunities for creating jobs in the United States, a trend that some companies do not fully appreciate.

Progress on four dimensions will be essential for reviving the US job creation machine: develop the US workforces’ skill to better match what employers are looking for; expand US workers’ share of global economic growth by attracting foreign investment and spurring exports; revive the nation’s spark by supporting emerging industries, ensuring more of them scale up in the United States, and reviving new business start-ups; and speed up regulatory decision-making that blocks business expansion and new investment.

Also view the executive summary and full report.

Nevada Recovery Still a Crapshoot

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A Las Vegas Sun columnist offers a look at why Nevada’s economy is still in turmoil as much of the country expects some recovery this year. The reasons are varied, and I’d advise reading the entire piece as it could prove interesting for the myriad Hoosiers who travel westward each year for the promise of a comped buffet.

Moody’s Economy.com recently plotted the 50 states on where they are on the path to recovery: 11 are in actual recovery and 38 are seeing the recession moderate. The one state remaining: Nevada, still considered to be in significant economic contraction, with no clear end in sight.

At this economic inflection point in which the rest of the country appears to be entering recovery — however tepid and uncertain — Nevada still lags far behind.

No doubt the 13.9 percent of Las Vegas residents officially unemployed — and the unknown number out of work so long they’ve quit looking — want to know why recovery is happening in other states but remains a distant mirage here.

Economists and local analysts say the reasons aren’t very complicated.

“Our economic growth was, frankly, unsustainable,” says Elliott Parker, an economist at the University of Nevada, Reno.

Primarily, our economy was too focused on building stuff — stuff no one wants or needs now.

As Jeremy Aguero of the economic research firm Applied Analysis notes, 12.5 percent of our workforce is in construction (or was, anyway), more than double the national average of 5.5 percent.

That was great when people were moving here and needed houses, stores and casinos, and when tourists were clamoring for more hotel rooms. But that’s all finished.

Good News on the Hiring Front?

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The results of a newly released survey from Careerbuilder.com seem pretty encouraging, at least in terms of the worst of the recession being over for the business sector. Workforce.com explains:

Fifty-three percent of employers plan to hire full-time employees in the next 12 months, and 40 percent plan to hire contract, temporary or project professionals, according to a survey released Tuesday, August 25, by job board CareerBuilder.com and Robert Half International Inc.
 
The survey also found that 47 percent of hiring managers cited underqualified applicants as their most common hiring challenge.

The annual Employment Dynamics and Growth Expectations Report provides an overview of the current employment situation, as well as a glimpse of the future hiring landscape. The report offers information on what types of professionals employers will be looking for when economic conditions improve.

The survey questioned more than 500 hiring managers and 500 workers.

“Companies already are identifying the key skill sets they will need in new hires to take advantage of the opportunities presented by improving economic conditions,” said Max Messmer, chairman and CEO of Robert Half International. “Firms that cut staffing levels too deeply may need to do significant rebuilding once the recovery takes hold.”