Deepening of Information Age: More Proof of Structural Changes in Job Markets

With the deepening of the information age, jobs will be characterized by increasing specialization, as said in many occasions in this post, such as here here and here

Here is an anecdotal proof provided by a large US manpower agency.

From the Wall Street Journal Blog (bold highlights mine)

Joerres said the global skills shortage applied particularly to technical areas, like specialized trades, but also sales staff. “There is still unemployment, but companies are having a difficult time finding the people they need to fill their positions. As the world is becoming more technical, the sales staff are having to become more technical, too,” Joerres said.

The shortage also applied to laborers, especially in developing markets. “You cannot just throw people at production to get more output,” Joerres said. “With the use of (computer numerical control, or CNC) machines, for example, it is more difficult to find the right people.”

ManpowerGroup’s sixth annual talent shortage survey, to be published Thursday, will show that persistent talent shortages across many geographies and industry sectors are frustrating employers who struggle to find qualified talent amid an oversupply of available workers.

And this has been a worldwide phenomenon. From the same article (bold highlights mine)

Although European countries aren’t yet feeling such an acute impact of talent shortages, the U.S. has seen a considerable uptick in the number of employers who can’t find the talent they need, Joerres said.

India now has the second-highest problem with skilled labor shortages. “The number of companies in India reporting difficulty filling vacancies is second only to Japan,” Joerres said.

“India is a big place with lots of people but there’s a shortage of assurance engineers, people who can read blueprints, designers and (computer-aided design, or CAD) designers.”

Manpower, based in Milwaukee, is looking to expand its operations in emerging markets that make up around 15% of its sales, which reached $5.07 billion in the first quarter of 2011.

The more the specialization, the more aggregate based statistics will become flawed and unreliable.

So when politicians and their ‘expert’ apologists speak about solving unemployment with use of aggregates, expect that these approaches to fall short because they are mostly likely addressing the wrong (industrial age based) issues.