Assumptions about why unemployment is so high could be totally wrong, says a recent editorial in the Wall Street Journal by Peter Cappelli, a professor at U. Penn’s Wharton School of Business. According to Manpower Group, 52% U.S. companies report difficulty filling jobs and 47% of companies blame job seekers’ lack of hard skills. But Cappelli’s editorial argues that the problem doesn’t lie squarely on the shoulders of un-skilled job seekers or a lacking educational system, but on inflexible employers and out of date hiring practices. Cappelli writes,  “Finding candidates to fit jobs is not like finding pistons to fit engines…Jobs can be organized in many different ways so that candidates who have very different credentials can do them successfully.”

Among his proposed solutions:

•         Companies should work with community colleges and educators to tailor coarse work to the specific needs of employers.
•         Bring back apprenticeships providing on the job training to new employees at a significant pay reduction/cost benefit to employers.
•         Promote from within and create pathways for advancement within companies reversing the trend of filling more than two-thirds of vacancies from outside job seekers.