The recession is largely a blue-collar worker phenomenon, and after a short blip, the talent shortage will be more severe than ever, according to a global expert in recruitment strategy.

Kevin Wheeler, president of Global Learning Resources, told Recruiter: “The biggest impact of the recession is on factory and unskilled workers. We are already seeing closure of factories and the evolution of blue collar jobs to other parts of the world, and the recession is going to speed this up even more.”

However, Wheeler said that after six months to a year of “slightly less hiring” the shortage of talent among white collar knowledge workers would not only resume, but would get worse. “The recession is more of a mindset than a reality,” he added.

On the contrary, Wheeler said that an ageing workforce, with fewer younger people entering it, a declining birth rate and a generation of young people “not highly attracted to typical corporate jobs” had created “almost a perfect storm.” “When we come out of this recession, we are going to see shortages that we couldn’t even have imagined,” said Wheeler. 

Colin Cottel reporting from the RCE global conference in Amsterdam.