Millions’ in wrong jobs

Posted on Wednesday, June 11th, 2008 by

At first glance, the recent declaration by The Skills Commission – that 132 million working years have been spent by people in the wrong job – seems right up there with ‘Freddie Star ate my hamster’. However, when you discover that this staggering statistic was produced after polling 2,000 adults who spent an average of four years and ten months in jobs that didn’t make the best use of their skills; their claim doesn’t seem quite so outlandish after all. As a recruitment company aware of the many reasons (often frustrated, undervalued but talented) candidates approach us, we’re not surprised by their subsequent claims either: that one in five people are currently in the wrong job and 41% of people have been in the past. We’ve also got a good track record at finding the right job for our candidates – 95% of our candidates are still in place two years after they have been hired.