Economic slowdown is a good time for training

Posted on March 3, 2008
Filed Under Education, Best Practices, Companies That "Get It", War for Talent |

Economic slowdowns drive up unemployment levels. We saw this with the recent ‘Pink Slip Party’ on the Las Vegas Strip a few weeks back. Room vacancies are up so there is not a need to maintain a larger workforce. So casinos lay off some employees and cut back hours of others. It is just part of business.

Our last career fair had a drop in employer participation. Why? Because when there are more unemployed folks on the streets, there is not as much of a need to advertise. Candidates are applying for jobs not even advertised…because they need the work. This validates my jobseeker~employer marketplace analysis.

Those that are financially able, will utilize this slowdown for training. It is a great time to sharpen skills for when the economy does rebound. It will make those candidates more marketable when job creation surges.

Smart employers also leverage these slowdowns to train their own workforces rather than lay them off. Strangely enough - I have heard about many layoffs within the ‘training and development’ departments. Go figure??