Looking Ahead- New Skills Sets and New Jobs Post Recession

The U.S. has lost 7.2 million jobs since the recession began in December 2007—and the economy needs to add at least 100,000 jobs per month just to keep up with labor market growth. So, for unemployment to drop (or at least stop rising), we obviously need more jobs to be created—which seems likely as the economy starts to recover.

The question is, where are the new jobs going to come from and what types of jobs are there going to be? There is bad news and good news.

The bad news is that many jobs that have been lost in the downturn have been lost for good—for example, some of the jobs in real estate and finance. And, the people who used to hold these jobs will have to look elsewhere for work.

But the first piece of good news is that the demand-supply misalignment could present opportunities for you to fill hard-to-fill positions with job seekers from other job sectors. Take a close look at some of your critical positions. Are they closely related to job sectors that have been hard hit by the recession? If so, consider how you could cost-effectively train or up skill workers from these fading sectors to meet the skill sets requirements of your critical positions.

The second piece of good news is that certain sectors of the economy are going to experience more job growth than others. For instance, the economic stimulus package has added more green jobs and hiring in these areas will pick up over the next several years. Are any of these sectors areas you hire from? If so, start planning your recruiting strategies now to make sure you aren’t caught in a talent shortage in the future once hiring picks up again.

The economy has presented new, different opportunities for us, and it’s important to evaluate how you can adapt to these changes, rather than continue business as usual.