Each year, the College Employment Research Institute, under the leadership of Dr. Phil Gardner, puts together a look at the current state of recruiting with regard to college students (check it out here).

Based on a sample of 4,300 employer representatives, their reports indicate that "the new college labor market inches ahead with a 3 percent gain over last year across all degrees.  Strong demand for marketing finance, human resources(!), and advertising majors as well as the inclusive "all majors" group will push up hiring for Bachelor's degrees by 5 percent."  The large surprise in the report was the strong demand for Associate's degrees, which were up 30% from the previous year, and were outpacing four-year degrees for the past several months.

Its a long report (57 pages), but one of the interesting highlights was asking employers which talent management strategies they were likely to incorporate over the next three years to circumvent potential skill shortages in their organization.  The authors narrowed it down to six options (from an array of possibilities):

• Moving operations.  Few organizations (4%) identified this as a strategy they were pursuing.
• Mergers and acquisitions.   As with moving operations, only a small number of employers (6%) chose this approach
• Partnering with other organizations.  Nearly 16% of employers were considering this, with educational services, non-profits, and healthcare services most likely to pursue this option.
• Investing in technology. Here, less than 25% of employers indicated they were likely to pursue this choice, with larger organizations the most likely to make the effort.  
• Participating in early talent development programs on college campuses.  As with technology, organizational size made a difference with 50% of large employers (< 4000 employees) adopting this strategy compared to only 15% of very small organizations (< 10 employees)
• Increasing amount spent on training.  Nearly 45% of employers plan to expand their efforts in this area, with small organizations (100-500 employees) leading the way.