2008 Talent Shortage Survey. Are we heading towards Idiocracy?

2008 Talent Shortage Survey. Are we heading towards Idiocracy?

www.manpower.com

Survey Report: Manpower surveyed nearly 43,000 employers across 32 countries and territories in late January 2008 to determine the extent to which talent shortages are impacting today's labor markets. The results of the third annual Talent Shortage Survey revealed that 31 percent of employers worldwide are having difficulty filling positions due to the lack of suitable talent available in their markets, which is 10 percentage point weaker compared to last year's survey

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Eastern Europe seem to be on top with the lack of workforce. Is the "Paris Hilton" culture going to transform the Earth into an "idiocracy"?

www.manpower.com
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reply to post by sty


Idiocracy, what a great flick. and could well be possible.

anyhow im wondering it x-box,sony and nintendo have anything to do with this. sure the games build hand eye skills and some puzzle solving skills. but they also trap our youth for hours on end and limit their exposure to more hands on and less inspirational creativity. i guess what im saying is on a game they have certain limits, and the real world is less constricting.

i don't think people are getting more stupid. It's because every good job that's worth getting needs these specific qualifications and not many people can afford to go to university either for personal reasons, poverty or they fail academically due to the rigid way schools are run.

reply to post by DaleGribble


I do not know what to say about XBox, i ended spending time with my games since pentium One . I am not sure that games are bad, however regardless if they help the brain , games will certainly not give a quallification. I am myself from the number one of the list, actually US is quite well. Here 73 % declared they cannot find skilled people. I somehow blame the TV/Media as is setting wrong goals for the brain of million of young people. When I was a child, i rememer that all the boys wanted to be pilots and all the girls wanted to become Doctors . Now they want to be Britney Spears , this could be the difference. In the future, i expect to see more and more need for quallified people. My country has 21 mil. people , by 2050 we will be about 18 mil. left, with 40-50% retired!

[edit on 7-5-2008 by sty]

reply to post by MacDonagh


In my country people ARE getting more stupid. The same books studied by a 10 yo child in the 60s ( i have some of them from my father) are now studied when kids are reaching 14. Also i know people on ATS declared that the minimum required to pass @ school is getting lower and lower. Same here. Also , the university should give you the top job but instead it is giving unappliable skills. I have the most wanted quallification in the country with the highest work force demand, yet it is hard to apply the University skills into real life economy.

What else can you expect when all the money goes to lawyers and corporate politicians. The rewards for becoming an engineer don't match with the educational and skill requirements, and the same is true for most skilled trades, electricians, tool makers, electro-mechanical technicians, HVAC Mechanics, and numerous other hands on jobs that require and extensive knowledge of technology. The world has no respect for the skilled trades anymore, so young people are not going into these fields. Women look down on skilled tradesmen, even when you make more money.

It doesn't really take much skill to be a mid level manager, just the willingness to put up with a lot of political maneuvering. When you start paying the secretaries, excuse me, executive assistants, as much money as the technicians who maintain the ever more complex machines that produce the goods and keep the buildings and information systems functioning, you are sooner or later going to have a problem. Sure administrative assistants are very important and require a certain skill level, but not at the the level required for most modern technology. In addition, many trades are dangerous, require working with machines and high voltages and pressures, climbing into uncomfortable and dangerous places and positions, and essentially risking life an limb on a regular basis. Why put yourself through that when you can work in a nice clean, environmentally controlled environment where all the women are, and you even wind up getting more respect.

I would like to also add that todays kids are kept locked up, at least in Suburbia. Video game are about their only escape. In the name of safety and security, we have created a labyrinth of rules from which few kids can escape. This doesn't help to expand young minds.

I believe employers are demanding more and more from fewer people. I talked to our environmental tech just today and he's now doing the job that used to be done by three people. I'm doing the jobs that used to be done by two people. Everyone I know is doing more and more with less and less.

It's not that they can't find the right people, It's that they can't find the people who can do everything they are cramming into one job that should be done by two or more people. It reminds me of the old saying,

"We the willing, led by the unknowing, have been doing the impossible for the ungrateful. We have done so much, for so long, with so little, we are now qualified to do anything, with nothing."

It's the employers that are getting stupid, not the employees.

reply to post by sty


When you say inapplicable skills, what does that entail? Also which country are you from if you don't mind me asking?

In Silicon Valley I find most bosses/supervisors/managers can't do the job that they are seeking to fill. They simply do not understand the technology, and are unable to assess the skill levels of the people they hire. The rewards systems in most corporations evolve around kissing your bosses behind, so those with out the technical skills tend to concentrate on kissing behind. The technically illiterate wind up being put in charge, the people with the skills get constantly screwed around, and find themselves out of favor for insisting on dealing with the world on a realistic basis, and winding up being the ones who often prove the upper muckity mucks to be wrong.

Look at what they did to software programmers. Most of the people who helped pioneer the software industry were not college grads. They got into computers at an early age, skipped college, and were making huge amounts of money at an early age. Then, software companies were bought out by old established corporations, who dumped the people who created the industry, and hired a bunch of fresh college grads from third world nations who work cheap. Now, in my opinion, the software that runs our computers is slowly getting worse and worse, and worse. The hardware is getting faster and faster, as the process gets more and more refined, but even though the computers are fifty times faster electronically, they are slower because the software is so buggy.

The biggest problem in my opinion is that the only thing our colleges and universities turn out are conformists, who don't know how to do anything but play politics and be politically correct.

Originally posted by poet1b
In Silicon Valley I find most bosses/supervisors/managers can't do the job that they are seeking to fill. They simply do not understand the technology,

Thats because people are promoted to the level of their incompetence.

A guy gets a job he's really good at and everyone is impressed so he gets promoted. With the new job he's not quite as good but hangs in there and soon has a handle on it. They promote him again. He's now in a tough job and is struggling but after awhile he can make it work but by now he has ten years into the company so they feel obligated to promote him one more time, into a job he has absolutely no idea how to do.

You just gotta love free enterprise

reply to post by mrwupy


I think the problem is deeper than that. The people who get put in charge are often the people with good people skills, but all too often not very good on the technical side. There seems to be a tipping point between having good technical skills, and having good people skills (politics). and most are either good at one or the other, and the better they tend to be at one, the worse they are at the other, or in blunt terms, good with people and bad with technology or good with technology and bad with people. Honestly, I don't think this is how our brains are wired, I think it is a matter of perspective. To be good at technology, you have to look at the world in realistic terms, cause and effect are very directly related, and you need to learn to identify things at the root level. When it comes to being a good politician, reality isn't as important as image, the underlying causes are not as important, convincing others that they are getting what they want is most important. It takes quite a trick to switch back and forth between these mind sets.

In this era of ever increasing productivity, politics has become more important to get ahead than actually being able to accomplish anything. the U.S. is becoming a nation of con artists.

I am from the Number one of the survey - Romania , 73 % of the companies are in trouble with finding people. Yet, there are people but they require training to adapt to a speciffic job. I graduated Engineering , 5 years full time degree. 90% of the things I learned I never used. And I start to forget it.
Regarding youth - keep well, every single generation after I graduated was "lucky" to have the amount of requests reduced. Younger generation know less and less (quality and quantity) in comparation with the kids of their age 10, 20 years ago.

Just a stupid question - who would benefit from this ? (from lowering the IQ of the population) ? i still wonder why the media strugles so much to set up a default goal for so many kids. I am afraid of getting old now !

Maybe it's the huge costs to get a bachelors degree? People would rather to labor jobs then go to more school?

Originally posted by mnmcandiez
Maybe it's the huge costs to get a bachelors degree? People would rather to labor jobs then go to more school?

Exactly. Not sure how other people feel, but the people who can often make the difference will always stand in indifference. Especially when it comes to going to university and learning pointless chaff that you don't really need to learn about.

Japan used to hire students after two years in a university and trained them for certain jobs and at least two levels above what was needed in training . They now have falen into the same degree of ignorance by cutting this hireing practice. Profit margins for stock holders are the reasons for this as it is here in the US. The Peter Principal is ramant in the corporate world in all countres. every dime the can put towards profit in the short run feathers they're caps ad to hell with the future. I compared two differant text books on business. One from the 60's and one by the same pubishing company in the mid- ninties. The change was scary as to the ethics being taught in the two books. Its no wonder that loyalty is not a concept when corporations have none for you.
Zindo

[edit on 5/10/2008 by ZindoDoone]

[edit on 5/10/2008 by ZindoDoone]

www.independent.co.uk... 5.html
interesting - it looks like we cannot even find people for basic work in agriculture. The Independent, todays edition

I would have to agree with the results of this survey.

Allot of the people I have worked with have been flat out incompetent.
I'm actually quite amazed that some of them were even looked at, let alone hired.

It's not so much a lack of potential intelligence... I'm seeing allot more people in the recent generations simply uncaring to how intelligent they are.
It's like people are giving up on advancing themselves.

I however, will never stop advancing myself.
I've always been a big believer in out-doing and out-thinking everyone I possibly can.
If I meet someone better, I step aside, but only long enough to train myself to out-perform them as well.


Never stop learning, never stop advancing yourself.

And yes, anyone who idolizes Paris Hilton is likely one of these incompetents.

reply to post by mrwupy


Very true. When my friend got hired at his last job he was doing the work of two people who had left. Then when he left that job, the other guy he worked with was doing his work and the work of my friend and this partner who left. They never replaced any of them. It's' ridiculous.

reply to post by poet1b



Another Mike Judge classic (Office Space)...art imitates life. You said "The biggest problem in my opinion is that the only thing our colleges and universities turn out are conformists, who don't know how to do anything but play politics and be politically correct." I couldn't agree more. It's pathetic that someone can go to school and pay up to $160,000 for a bachelor's degree and come out knowing absolutely nothing about anything.

reply to post by johnsky


I know what you mean about being amazed that some people are even considered for a particular job. Is it me or is hardly anyone wearing suits or other appropriate BUSINESS attire to interviews anymore? People come in looking like slobs, with typos on their resumes...

Great thread and super great replys. Stars all around