Shortages for quality people, rather than being highly variable, are now affecting nearly every industry and type of worker with few exceptions.  From our experience in talking with dozens of HR/Talent organizations across the US each week, in figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and in a number of articles in the Wall Street Journal in the last 3 months, like today's article,  In this job market, Quitters are Winning,   the talent shortage  (and from another perspective, Talent War) is here and here to stay.

 Starting in 2017 and accelerating in 2018,  the rate of voluntary job hopping- is now double the rate of lay-offs - highest level in 20 years and approaching the highest level ever.   Statistical studies show that currently well over 1 million people in the US have left their jobs voluntarily with the intent of finding something better which is usually a mix of better pay and better alignment with their passions and goals.  Most of this is caused by much greater confidence in the economy along with a long era of pent up desires to move on. Some is more cultural if not demographic, with shifting attitudes principally by millennials.  On the demand side, there are 5 factors we and others have cited.    First, just like on the supply side, economic growth and confidence are major factors spurring investment and growth.  But adding to it are 4 other less-mentioned factors:

1. Accelerating aging of work force- the impact of the baby boomers is really hitting now across nearly all industries now.
2. Nascent trade war- beginning impacts and predicted impacts is starting to impact real world decisions.
3. A broadening mis-match between skills and competencies needed by companies and the supply - partly caused by cultural issues and by failures overall in our country's educational system.  The (what should be very scary and troubling) decline of our education system versus the rest of the world and the mismatch between the types of skills and competencies trained for, is starting to have a major impact, and this will get worse (especially since it's not being addressed to any great degree).
4. Technology is having an impact giving millions of people the opportunity to freelance and to work remote. This is well known, but one of the major implications not discussed is how this has helped increase the number of those quitting their jobs due to the cushion the freelancing can provide while they pursue something better.  It has also given entrepreneurial types the ability to quit their jobs and still cushion themselves financially. Of course on the employer side, there are also a number of supporting and hindering forces at work. All these causes hit industries, specific careers and regions differently, but across the majority of the economy currently, major challenges are here and accelerating. 

So the question becomes, what can you do about it?  What data and what processes have to be added or modified? What actions do you need to take to get the solution?  Many organizations are increasing investment into team and retention programs to address this but typically with very poor results because creating engagement, improving retention and ending up with a motivated inspired high performing work force like anything else has to do with addressing the root causes.  When you consider the root causes, you'll find, I think, that they are individual not organization or department wide.   Data and the understanding it must create to be useful,  must be analyzed bottom up and the implementation of solutions to address root causes must be top down, but this only seems to happen in the top few high performing organizations.  More to follow...