The United States ended 2018 with some of the lowest unemployment rates seen in decades. This great news for the economy brings challenges for businesses trying to fill open positions or expand their workforce. Coupled with the low employment rate, the skills gap has also made hiring all the more difficult for employers. Tackling these challenges starts with exploring new strategies to help your business stay competitive in the 2019 hiring market.

If you walk into a public library today, you will likely encounter a very different environment than the libraries of your childhood.

No longer a place just to borrow books, public libraries have evolved in recent years to become hubs of lifelong learning providing classes, workshops, access to digital resources, and even access to the internet for those that do not have it at home.

The manufacturing industry is currently facing a workforce crisis that could potentially leave millions of lucrative jobs unfilled in years to come. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) reports, there are about 488,000 open manufacturing jobs in the United States. While the number of open jobs has decreased month over month, the number of unfilled manufacturing jobs is projected to continue to rise in the coming years. This trend could have a lasting effect on not only manufacturing in the United States, but also the overall economic growth in our country.

Make no mistake, the skills gap is real. Ask anyone trying to fill jobs in the manufacturing industry. The pace of technological change means that many people misunderstand the skills that are needed, and some who have them don’t see manufacturing as a viable option.

The debate over how to close the skills gap has yielded suggestions ranging from new legislation to hip, millennial-focused PR efforts. Perhaps all of these are needed to create a robust skills force for the future.

Apprenticeships have almost reached the status of a buzzword in the discussion over how to close the skills gap. State Senators are introducing bills to make apprenticeships more accessible to high school students. Meanwhile, officials in Maryland are expanding a high school apprenticeship program that started in two counties out to the rest of the state.

In almost every industry, for almost every business, finding qualified middle-skills candidates to fill open jobs is difficult. The low unemployment rate isn’t helping. Jobs are harder to fill and keeping existing employees is more important than ever. Meanwhile, rapid changes in technology and the development of new ways of doing business, mean that even existing employees may not have the right skill sets.

Employers challenged by the skills gap are turning to staffing firms to find qualified employes. Yet staffing companies are not immune to the skills gap. Just like employers, staffing companies are struggling to recruit and retain skilled talent.  To continue serving their clients, staffing companies need to go beyond placement and start upskilling and training employees for high-demand roles. This strategy will allow staffing companies to do more than overcome the skills gap, it will allow them to thrive in a whole new way.

You’ve heard of the skills gap. Well there’s another challenge facing employers who have middle-skills jobs to fill: the credentials gap.

For years, businesses have missed out on quality candidates. With a single sentence, they discouraged potentially great employees from even applying. Different companies phrase it in different ways: “Bachelor’s degree required. Associate degree preferred. This position assumes a 4 year degree.” Whichever way they said it, the message was the same, applicants without college degrees shouldn’t even bother.

Like many industries in today’s economy, the trucking industry is not immune to the effects of the growing labor shortage for skilled workers. According to the Washington Post¹, young Americans are increasingly becoming disinterested in joining the trucking labor force, as fear of the imminence of self-driving trucks continues to permeate the industry. While such a reality may still be far into the future, the reality that exists today is this: There simply aren’t enough truck drivers to go around.

The time has come to serve the middle skilled workforce in the United States. In an interview with Todd Hand of Boston Search Group, Penn Foster CEO Frank Britt explains the recent trends and future outlook for the workforce development industry. Highlighting the importance of upskilling and investing in the middle skilled, or “gray collar,” cohort of workers, Britt’s interview focuses on how organizations are finally becoming aware of this need for workforce development.