Growing War for Talents Looms as Economy Continues to Recover

Manpower Inc., MAN has warned that continuing high levels of unemployment are coupled with large numbers of unfilled job vacancies as the January U.S. jobs report, released today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, showed the economy created 36,000 jobs last month and the unemployment rate fell by 0.4 of a percentage point to nine percent. Manpower announced at the World Economic Forum Annual meeting last week that the world has entered a new age, where employers will be awakened to the power of humans as the future drivers of economic growth as access to talent replaces access to capital as the key economic differentiator. Aging workforces, the collaborative power of rapidly-evolving technologies, the need for companies to do more with less, and the problem of the skills young people are being equipped with not matching the skills businesses need are converging, making talent attraction and retention critical in order for organizations to gain a competitive edge. "As the economy begins to click into second gear, employers are hiring but they are doing so with extreme caution. They will only hire individuals who have the exact specificity of skills they are looking for," said Jeffrey A. Joerres, Manpower Inc. Chairman and CEO. "The economy will gather strength as 2011 progresses and businesses will need to work with their people to unleash their full spectrum of skills and engage them on a human level to retain their best employees in an era when competition for talents becomes ever greater."