Our old friend and colleague Ira Wolfe has been collecting statistics about the shortage of skilled workers for some time, and has authored a book on the Perfect Labor Storm.

Ira has now created a five-minute video with some of the statistics. It’s dramatic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAXZIeaNrAA

To be successful, companies will have to view their people as their #1 [...]

Popularity: 34% [?]

Tamara Erickson, one of the authors of the Harvard Press book Workforce Crisis: How to Beat the Coming Shortage of Skills And Talent” testified before the U.S. Senate last year on workforce trends. Her main points:

The workforce is older, and limited in availability. There will be a shortage of skilled workers of traditional work age [...]

Popularity: 74% [?]

So, who do you know?

More workers landed their current job through networking than by any other means.

According to a new Hudson survey a full 73% of managers say their company considers internal candidates to fill a job opening before looking at anyone else. Specifically, 40% of managers say that internal promotions are the best [...]

Popularity: 53% [?]

The effects of cuts in the permanent workforce are starting to show.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics report on Continent and Alternative Employment Arrangements has documented that in 2005 more than 10 million workers – about 7.4 of the employed – were independent contractors (an increase from 6.4 in 2001). An increasing number of workers are [...]

Popularity: 37% [?]