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Be on the lookout for labor shortages, flexible employers and – yes – more offshoring.

I predict that 2006 will be a banner year for candidates seeking employment. The employment market for 2006 has emerged as a candidate's market. Here are my predictions for the year:

1. Labor shortages will become acute and painful for companies. There will be two forms of labor shortages: real shortages of candidates and shortages of candidates with current skill sets. For example, we do not have a shortage of programmers. Rather, we have a shortage of programmers who have the current skill sets required by employers.

2. Competition for qualified workers by employers will intensify. As the economy continues to move away from the recession, the job growth in the small- to medium-sized companies will continue. This means more jobs, but not enough qualified candidates. The days of hiring bonuses and special incentives are already returning.

3. Labor shortages will force employers to seek non-traditional employees. In the 1990s the joke was that if you had stayed at a company more than 18 months, what was wrong with you? Companies now want a more stable work force. The competition for qualified employees will encourage employers to seek new sources of candidates. This includes a bigger effort to hire veterans and transitioning military, candidates with disabilities and older candidates.

4. Employers will make greater use the Internet for recruiting. A WEDDLE's study of over 3,000 recently hired employees found that candidates were finding jobs using Internet job boards, especially niche sites, 3 to 1 over any other source. Another study of 3,900 recruiters and human resource managers found that 82% got their best candidates from Internet job boards.

5. There will be a greater acceptance of flexible work by employers. With the shortage of workers, employers will be more open to job sharing, working from home and flexible work schedules. Using the Internet will give more employees greater flexibility. But this will require a serious paradigm shift in how companies treat, compensate and manage their employees.

6. Employers will put greater emphasis on employee training and retention. Training and retention go hand in hand. Better training and especially better on-boarding leads to better retention. Retention reduces turnover, which provides stability and leads to better profits. My concern here is that employers are not looking at this area and will be too late in making the needed changes before employees leave.

7. Job-hopping will accelerate. As more jobs become available, candidates will move from companies they felt did not treat them fairly during the recession.

8. Retirement will evolve. Retirement as we know it in North America and Europe is a relatively recent phenomenon. Now, people want meaning in their lives, so they are working longer, but in different jobs.

9. Offshoring will continue, but more jobs will be coming to the U.S. Employers in developed countries will continue to send work to less-developed countries for cost savings, but it is not the mass exodus many politicians had us believing. As one study pointed out, only 1.5 million jobs were offshored from ALL the developed countries. Work that is sensitive to customer satisfaction, involves cross-cultural communication or is technical with a need for quality or creativity will return to the home country. And many companies have learned the hard way that copyright and trade secret laws are not enforceable in many third world countries.

10. Outsourcing of jobs from union states to non-union states will continue. Thanks to the union movement of the late 1800s and early 1900s, the U.S. has one of the finest work environments in the world. But union states like Michigan and Ohio are having problems attracting jobs and investment due to to perceptions about union work rules. As the economy continues to improve, companies will move their jobs to where they can get the best productivity, and that is in the right-to-work states.

11. The immigrant labor issue will have to be resolved to keep the U.S. competitive. Illegal immigration is a hot political and emotional issue in the U.S. If there were no demand for their labor, immigrants would not be coming here. And companies would not be hiring these workers if the companies had viable alternatives. Our work visa system will have to undergo serious revision to make it easier for people to come to the U.S. to work.

12. Political correctness and EEO policies will have to evolve. Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) programs were first implemented in the late 1960s to help eliminate racism in the workplace. But employees will not stay in an environment where they feel they are not being treated fairly. If companies continue these practices, they will lose their best employees.

13. Employers will become increasingly dissatisfied with public schools. Managers are becoming frustrated with the public school system's preparation of the entry-level workforce. As a result, corporate executives will be demanding greater performance from public schools and technical, community, and four-year colleges.

Finally, I predict that 2006 will be the best year since 2000 for individuals seeking employment!   PCD&M

Ted Daywalt is CEO and president of Vetjobs, the Internet's largest comprehensive military-related job board. He can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

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