These are the people who have some chance at answering the question "What do I want to be when I grow up?" or, more succinctly, "What is my profession?". This is the land of salaries, knowledge work, managerial opportunity, software development, professional practice and so on. Solidly 33% of college graduates have a clear answer to the vocational question. That's about 10% of the workforce.

But, when you go to visit an online database of jobs, what do they want to know? Keywords related to the job desired, of course. The approach neglects the fact that 90% of the workforce doesn't think about it this way. Given the fact that the average weekly earnings of an American worker are $497.65 (That's right, under $26K per year), the real job search that interests most people is probably something like "What can I do that will make better than $15/hour in my zip code?"

None of the keyword searches will get you that.

We think that this simple look identifies three key issues facing our industry and its customers:

1. All of the college educated workers are taken. Anticipate wage inflation as employers lulled into a sense of false security try to compete for white collar workers who simply aren't there.

2. Job Boards are going to have to invest, big time, in methods that allow non-white collar job hunters to find the best opportunity (defined as highest paying). Current methods simply don't allow this to happen.

3. Increasingly, Job Boards will be required to help employers identify the "closest fit". When placing non-college educated workers in white collar jobs, the key will be a clear understanding of the required investment in training and remedial education. Closest fit is not a "cultural attribute", it's a question of demonstrable skills.

Interestingly, one of the few advantages that newspapers currently have is their ability to cram a lot of jobs into a single viewing space. Since they are, more or less, all the same in what's left of the newspapers' business, the fact that titles are relatively meaningless works in their favor. It, of course, is a short term advantage.

Over the years, we've aggressively suggested that our industry needs to invest in real research and development. If you read this note closely, you'll see the first couple of projects.

 -John Sumser

Be Intelligent. Be Knowledgeable. Be Ready.

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