Does the Skills Gap Make Sense?

Millions of workers are unemployed but employers can’t find the candidates they want. What’s wrong with this picture?

In February, 10.5 million workers in the U.S. were unemployed.  At the same time, employers were trying to fill 4 million job openings

Huh?  There are more than twice as many available workers than jobs and employers can’t find qualified candidates?

It’s known now as the skills gap. People don’t have jobs because they don’t have the skills to fill the open positions.  But there must be more to it.

Let’s start by looking at how candidates are recruited.  Software has replaced the stack of resumes in the in-basket.  ATS platforms (Applicant Tracking Systems ) provide a central location and database for a company’s recruitment efforts.  But, in many cases, they also filter applications automatically based on given criteria such as former employers, years of experience and schools attended.

These ATS platforms are said to toss out roughly 75% of all resumes that run through them, possibly dumping qualified candidates by working to oversimplified criteria.

Maybe it’s not the software.  Perhaps employers are shooting themselves in the foot. Time magazine recently claimed that employers often try to avoid training hires and so insist on extensive previous experience.

These and other possible causes for the skills gap are well presented in a Recruiter.com article.  You can read the full article here.