New McKinsey Study – Top Talent is Hard to Find & We Need More College Graduates

The McKinsey Global Institute did an amazing study in June, 2011, on job projections and the needs of America workforce in 2020.  The 100 page study can be found here:

I have two big takeaways (although you could have 20 based on the robustness of this report):

Takeaway 1 – Top talent is hard to find! – On page 41, there is a graph that shows areas such as management, science/engineering, computer programming/IT,  sales/marketing are the positions most difficult for employers to fill.   So while overall unemployemt remains at 8%-9% (as of July 18, 2011), you really have a cluster of occupations that are in high demand with specialized skills.

Takeaway 2 – In 2020, America will have not enough college graduates to meet the demand from employers (1.5 million short).  These shortages will primarily come from a lack of graduates in science, technology, engineering and math (otherwise know as STEM subjects).