Skilled Workers Shortage Increases

A new study shows that 54% of large U.S. businesses that laid off employees in the past year want to rebuild their workforces but some are having trouble finding sufficiently skilled people to hire, Reuters reports. The study by management consulting firm Accenture found about half of large firms plan to return to their pre-recession levels of employment within two years and only 13% said they planned to reduce their workforce.

Moreover, those surveyed said they were less concerned about cost control. Companies focused primarily on cost control will decrease from 41% in mid-2009 to 18% in 2011, the study said.

U.S. companies focused primarily on investment in growth-oriented activities, such as hiring, will increase from 24% today to 37% within the next 12 months, Accenture said.

Idled workers may have fallen behind on skills while out of a job, forcing them and employers to invest in training, Accenture said. Skills were particularly lacking within sales and customer service workforces, the survey said. Twenty-seven percent of respondents said their companies lack the skills required of their sales workforce, and 25% said a significant proportion of skills in their customer service organizations were out of date.