Some companies get creative to fill jobs

MILWAUKEE — Antoinette Lucero figured she'd never find a job. Unemployed and on welfare for five years, she wondered who would hire a deaf woman with little training.

But the 29-year-old single mother learned about a free program sponsored by staffing company Manpower Inc. to earn certification in electronics assembly. She's now an inspector and assembler at Sennheiser Electronic Corp. in Albuquerque, living in her own apartment and saving for her daughter's college education.

"It's a career for me; it's not just a job," Lucero said. "So there's a big difference. I never felt before that I had a career."

Companies are starting to get creative when it comes to filling jobs, looking to hire people who may be underemployed, sometimes disabled like Lucero, or luring back retirees by offering flexible hours. Staffing companies like Manpower and others say it's already tough to find skilled labor. Things are only going to get worse with the nearing retirement of the baby boomer generation, they say.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates 10 million jobs will be unfilled in 2010, when the first wave of boomers retires.

There are an estimated 78 million American boomers, who were born between 1946 and 1964. Worldwide shortages are expected for sales representatives, engineers, carpenters, plumbers and other jobs, according to Manpower, which last year placed 4.1 million people on permanent, temporary and contract positions in 72 countries.

Clients of the Milwaukee-based company are starting to plan for the impending shortage, often by first asking their employees about their retirement plans, said Jonas Prising, president of Manpower's North American operations. He estimates people 55 and older make up 15 percent to 20 percent of the work force.

"They can't just ignore it. They have to think about it and then decide how to plan for it," Prising said of the shortage.

Express Personnel Services is telling its 75,000 clients about the upcoming shortage and ways they can prevent it, said Linda Haneborg, spokeswoman for the Oklahoma City-based staffing company. She said the company's 500 franchises want clients to realize that there are now several different generations in the workplace and they all must be made happy if companies are to survive.

"We have every mix imaginable within the workplace," Haneborg said. "It's the most unique time in the history of the American workplace that we have ever experienced."