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The Importance of Developing Employability

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 January 2015

P. D. Harms*
Affiliation:
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Bradley J. Brummel
Affiliation:
The University of Tulsa
*
E-mail: [email protected], Address: University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 265 CBA, 1240 R Street, Lincoln, NE 68588.

Extract

The focal article by Hogan, Chamorro-Premuzic, and Kaiser is timely. With persistently high unemployment levels in the United States and across the globe it is clear that we need not only an understanding of what makes people successful in the jobs that they have but also an understanding of how to get them into the workforce and keep them there. To make the problem even clearer, consider the fact that despite the high unemployment rates and increasing numbers of students attending college, there are an estimated 3.5 million unfilled job openings (http://www.bls.gov/news.release/jolts.nr0.htm) at this very moment. Industrial–organizational (I–O) psychologists need to come to a better understanding of the nature of this problem and the potential solutions. The focal article represents an important first step in this process, but we believe that there are some areas of neglect in the model presented. In particular, we would like to focus our commentary on the development of both character and knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary for employment.

Type
Commentaries
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology 2013 

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