Rick Bell of Workforce Management has published some interesting employment findings from a survey released August 25 by CareerBuilder.com and Robert Half International Inc. Judging by the statistics, it seems the recruitment market is on the up:

‘Fifty-three percent of employers plan to hire full-time employees in the next 12 months, and 40 percent plan to hire contract, temporary or project professionals’

Even with high unemployment rates across the US, the study found that ‘47% of hiring managers cited underqualified applicants as their most common hiring challenge [..] Employers said that on average, 44 percent of résumés they receive are from unqualified candidates.”

It’s often suggested that ‘smart’ people use an economic recession as an opportunity to re-tool and upskill so that when the market emerges from the slump, their opportunities for moving up the career ladder are greatly accelerated. Looking forward respondents to the survey cited ‘technology, customer service and sales as the departments that will add positions first. Marketing/creative, business development, human resources and accounting/finance also were cited.‘

Finally, it emerged that even now many companies are willing to pay more for highly qualified employees. In fact, as they prepare for the market to improve, ‘sixty-one percent of hiring managers said their companies are willing to negotiate higher compensation for qualified candidates.‘

There is no doubt that this survey highlights the huge value of on-going professional development and training throughout ones career. Combine that with findings from the recent June 26 meta-analysis and review from the US Department of Education advocating blended and online learning to be more effective than face to face, and everything points to a bright online future for professional development training.