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Report: Global Companies Struggling To Find Skilled Workers

BLUE BELL, Pa. (CBS) - A recent international survey found global companies are struggling when it comes to finding skilled workers. A Montgomery County recruiting company decided to take a look at whether firms in the Philadelphia region are seeing the same problem.

The international survey found that 50 percent of the employers across the United States were having problems compared with 30 percent in China and 67 percent in Japan. Right Recruiting in Blue Bell looked at regional companies and Founder and CEO Jeff Zinser says locally the rates were higher than the national numbers.

"Sixty percent of the 140 regional companies that we surveyed admitted that they were struggling to fill slots for skilled people. That's startling in a nine percent unemployment rate," said Zinser.

Zinser believes the numbers are directly related to the educational system at both the public and college levels. He says graduates aren't equipped for today's manufacturing economy and he believes there's a disconnect between what schools are teaching and what businesses need to stay afloat. If we don't fill the pipeline with skilled workers, he says manufacturing companies will look overseas.

Reported by Brad Segall, KYW Newsradio

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