Why Employers Are Mad

CNBC just posted an article entitled “Why Johnny can’t write, and why employers are mad”;  click here to read the article.  It cites employers who say they can’t find qualified candidates for their jobs, and adds that often the problem is applicants’ “inadequate communication skills”:  “In survey after survey, employers are complaining about job candidates’ inability to speak and write clearly.”

The article quotes William Ellet, who teaches writing at Brandeis International Business School and previously taught writing at Harvard Business School, about the importance of writing to companies: “Recruiters and companies are saying, ‘Send us a writing sample, and if you don’t meet our standards for communication, we are not hiring you.’”

It also refers to a previous article (“Jobs skills gap: The basics become a problem”;  click here to read the article) which described a telephone survey of 500 top executives.  Of those surveyed, 92 percent said there was a “gap” in the skills of the American workforce, and nearly half of those pointed to a gap in “communication, critical thinking, creativity and collaboration.”