The Market: June 2007

Have you noticed that job applicants are withdrawing their candidacy in the middle of your interview process?

Have you noticed some are turning down your job offers?

Has your time to hire been growing?

Are college grads playing "eenie-meenie-miney-mo" with your offers.

If you are like most firms, these are among the new conditions during this labor market. Companies are finding it more difficult to fill their jobs because we do not have enough skilled labor to fill the number of jobs being created.

Now, before you start to think that this is a commercial for the new immigration bill, it isn't. It is a commercial for increasing the H-1b quotas.

Here are some facts.

Everyone knows that unemployment is at a ten year low of 4.4-4.5 per cent. Let's look beneath those numbers for a second.

Unemployment for those without a high school diploma is over 7%.

Unemployment for those with a high school diploma is 4.5%.

Unemployment for those with a college degree or better is 1.8%.

1.8%!

Companies are now competing for scarce talent and skills that the immigration bill won't fix for them as long as the quotas on H-1b hiring is kept so low. H-1b's are not taking jobs from Americans.

Americans are stifling the economy by not increasing their numbers and forcing companies to look more at outsourcing or, ultimately, at the sale of their businesses to foreign companies for lack of scarce talent.


So how are you supposed to find increasingly scarce people?

One way is to remember that people are now a finite good and treat them as special. Sell your company to each and everyone, even if you aren't interested in them.

If you are in human resources, you need to coach your managers into the new reality of the labor market (many of them grew up or worked during the last recession when firms could offer job applicants two choices--take it or leave it).

Can you get your company's name in the press as an employer of choice by trumpeting your firm's low turnover, incredible success in its field or the success of one of its staff? This will help to draw people to your firm.

Bad impressions or confusing communications will haunt your firm for years. If you take time, just five minutes in every interview, to sell, to market your firm as a great place to work, if everyone does that, you will start to see your time to hire drop. Not instantly, but sure as shooting.

Jeff Altman
The Big Game Hunter
Concepts in Staffing
thebiggamehunter@cisny.com

© 2007 all rights reserved.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter, is Managing Director with Concepts in Staffing, a New York search firm, He has successfully assisted many corporations identify management leaders and staff in many disciplines since 1971. He is a certified leader of the ManKind Project, a not for profit organization that assists men with life issues, and a practicing psychotherapist.

To receive a daily digest of positions emailed to you, search for openings that The Big Game Hunter is working on, to use Jeff’s free job lead search engine, Job Search Universe, to subscribe to Jeff’s free job hunting ezine, “Head Hunt Your Next Job, or his staffing ezine, “Natural Selection”, or to learn about his VIP program, go to www.jeffaltman.com. Job Search Universe is also available at www.jobsearchuniverse.com To add your firm’s career page to “The Universe” email the url to jobsearchuniverse@gmail.com.

If you would like Jeff and his firm to assist you with hiring staff, or if you would like help with a strategic job change, send an email to him at thebiggamehunter@cisny.com (If you’re looking for a new position, include your resume).

If you have a question that you would like me to answer pertaining to job hunting or hiring, email it to him at:
thebiggamehunter@gmail.com