Pursuing the Purple Squirrel

A human resources director presented me with what has become a strange but common hiring problem. This happened last year after I gave a speech to the Society of Human Resources Management chapter in Bryan, Texas. After my speech on the most in-demand occupations and changing elements of the Texas labor economy, a woman from the audience stopped me. She said she wanted me to hear about a particularly difficult job she was trying to fill. The job was an entry-level computer programmer. She proceeded to spend the next 10 minutes explaining a lengthy grocery list of requirements she needed for this position and how it was impossible to find somebody who met these requirements. When she was done, I responded by saying: "Ma'am, let see if I heard you correctly. You're essentially looking for a 25-year-old who has 15 years of specific work experience, 1 bachelor's degree, 2 industry certifications and is willing to work for less than $30,000 a year. Is that what you're saying?" She paused then said: "Yes." "Well, ma'am have you found anybody who meets those expectations?" "No." "Well, ma'am do really think those are realistic expectations for that job?" "My company president thinks so." And this is one core issue of slow labor market recovery that we are experiencing in America. Many employers are chasinng the what is called the "purple squirrel." Since 2007, the United States has been an extreme "buyers market." We've been living in a country (and in a world) where there are more available workers than there are openings. Then as the labor market has been sluggish in its recovery the employers have also been having to deal with hundreds and hundreds of applicants for every job opening. In the workforce world we have witnessed that employers have responded by writing longer and longer job descriptions whenever they have a job opening. But the response is going even further. Now we have employers who have raised their expectations so high for job applicants that they want a more than perfect job candidate who can hit the ground running and they want that job candidate cheap. And they seem to think that if they just wait they will happen across this elusive and perfect job candidate. Peter Capelli, professor of human resources at the Wharton School of Business at Penn, calls this "chasing the purple squirrel." And this is just one aspect of our labor market.