CHICAGO and ATLANTA, April 13,
2017 /PRNewswire/ -- It's one of today's most vexing
economic puzzles: Why can't employers find workers to fill their
positions when approximately 7.5 million1
Americans are unemployed, and millions more are working part-time
because they can't find full-time positions or have given up
looking for work altogether? According to a new CareerBuilder
survey, nearly 60 percent of U.S. employers have job openings that
stay vacant for 12 weeks or longer. The average cost HR managers
say they incur for having extended job vacancies is more than
$800,000 annually.
CareerBuilder's latest studies on the effects of the skills gap
on the U.S. labor market were conducted online by Harris Poll from
November 16 to December 6, 2016 and
February 16 to March 9, 2017. These
studies included representative samples of 2,391 and 2,380
employers, respectively, and 3,411 and 3,215 workers, respectively,
across all industries in the private sector.
According to the survey, 68 percent of employers who said they
were increasing their number of full-time, permanent employees in
the first quarter (Jan.1-March 31, 2017) currently have open
positions for which they cannot find qualified candidates. This is
consistent across company sizes with larger companies – which tend
to have more job openings in general:
- 1-50 employees: 49 percent
- 51-250 employees: 74 percent
- 251-500 employees: 72 percent
- 501+ employees: 71 percent
"The gap between the number of jobs posted each month and the
number of people hired is growing larger as employers struggle to
find candidates to fill positions at all levels within their
organizations," said Matt Ferguson,
CEO of CareerBuilder and co-author of The Talent Equation.
"There's a significant supply and demand imbalance in the
marketplace, and it's becoming nearly a million-dollar problem for
companies."
The skills gap exists across industries
The
supply/demand issue isn't unique to one industry or certain
occupational categories. The analysis below compares the number of
job listings for positions to the number of hires using
CareerBuilder and Emsi's extensive labor market database, which
pulls from a variety of national and state employment resources as
well as online job postings.
Occupation
|
2016
Average
Monthly
Hires
|
Avg. Unique
Job
Postings (Jan 2016
-
Dec
2016)
|
Internists,
General
|
1,588
|
49,466
|
Heavy and
Tractor-Trailer Truck
Drivers
|
106,780
|
1,495,132
|
Marketing
Managers
|
8,628
|
80,498
|
Information Security
Analysts
|
3,929
|
32,103
|
Web
Developers
|
6,955
|
46,950
|
Industrial
Engineers
|
8,156
|
48,749
|
Demonstrators and
Product
Promoters
|
6,375
|
31,221
|
Sales
Managers
|
17,745
|
65,161
|
Human Resources
Managers
|
6,183
|
22,040
|
Financial
Managers
|
23,180
|
53,775
|
Employers acknowledge there's a problem to fix
Two in
3 employers (67 percent) from the CareerBuilder survey say they are
concerned about the growing skills gap, and with good reason. More
than half (55 percent) say they have seen a negative impact on
their business due to extended job vacancies with a sizable
proportion of these employers pointing to productivity issues, an
increase in voluntary turnover and revenue loss:
- Productivity loss: 45 percent
- Higher employee turnover: 40 percent
- Lower morale: 39 percent
- Lower quality work: 37 percent
- Inability to grow business: 29 percent
- Revenue loss: 26 percent
Workers say they are lagging behind
Those doing the
hiring are not the only ones noticing the issue. 1 in 5 workers (20
percent) say their professional skills are not up to date.
Fifty-seven percent of workers reported that they want to learn a
new skillset to land a better-paying, more fulfilling job, but half
of them said they can't afford to do so2.
To help with this, last year Capella Learning Solutions and
CareerBuilder launched an initiative called RightSkill, which
enables workers to upskill and reskill for in-demand jobs within 60
days or less. The program, which is currently free for candidates,
teaches competencies online based on real-time data and guidance
from employers. See more at www.rightskill.com.
Survey Methodology
These surveys were conducted online
within the U.S. by Harris Poll on behalf of CareerBuilder
between November 16 and December 6,
2016 (among 2,391 hiring and human resource managers and
3,411 workers who are employed full-time, not self-employed, and
non-government) and February 16 and
March 9, 2017 (among 2,380 hiring and
human resource managers and 3,215 workers who are employed
full-time, not self-employed, and non-government). Percentages for
some questions are based on a subset, based on their responses to
certain questions. With pure probability samples of 2,391, 3,411,
2,380, and 3,215, one could say with a 95 percent probability that
the overall results have sampling errors of +/- 2.00, +/-1.68,
+/-2.01, and +/-1.73 percentage points, respectively. Sampling
error for data from sub-samples is higher and varies.
About CareerBuilder®
CareerBuilder is a global,
end-to-end human capital solutions company focused on helping
employers find, hire and manage great talent. Combining
advertising, software and services, CareerBuilder leads the
industry in recruiting solutions, employment screening and human
capital management. It also operates top job sites around the
world. Owned by TEGNA Inc. (NYSE:TGNA), Tribune Media (NYSE:TRCO)
and McClatchy (NYSE:MNI), CareerBuilder and its subsidiaries
operate in the United States,
Europe, South America, Canada and Asia. For more information, visit
www.careerbuilder.com.
Media Contact
Ladan
Nikravan
312.698.0538 x70538
ladan.nikravan@careerbuilder.com
http://www.twitter.com/CareerBuilderPR
1 Bureau of Labor Statistics, March 2017
2 Harris Poll on behalf of CareerBuilder,
March 2016
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SOURCE CareerBuilder