Logistics is changing and you are going to need college grads...start now.

The future of logistics is graduating now.

Since I have joined Twitter, I have found it interesting to learn about other people and events taking place in my industry.  As fate would have it, I noticed two articles side by side that made me notice how things are changing in the logistics business. The first came from the Fast Lane Blog from the Department of Transportation and the other from Yahoo Finance about how young people thanks to the recession are becoming a lost generation. Both articles have a grim tone with a touch of optimism about the future. 

Yahoo Says:

About 60% of recent graduates have not been able to find a full-time job in their chosen profession, according to job placement firm Adecco.

It sounds oddly familiar to me because when I received my bachelor’s degree in 1990 a recession made finding work very difficult and a living wage next to impossible.  Fortunately, for this generation of college graduates there isn't a cover story on Time Magazine telling them they are lazy and worthless.   It seems like a tragic waste of talent that these people are having such a hard time finding work.    

This is where the Department of Transportation blog comes in:

Transportation is a great place to start when creating jobs.  Across all modes of transportation—from roads, bridges, and buses to airports, trains, and maritime—America will always need workers to maintain our transportation networks and build new ways to connect goods and people.

But it’s not enough to just create new jobs. With 50 percent of the current transportation workforce eligible for retirement in 2013, and significant technological changes affecting all modes of transportation, we must educate the next generation of workers.

In other words, many of the people in the trucking, shipping, and warehouse business are getting ready to retire.  There is also a lot of well qualified college grads out there that need work.  Supply meets demand.  What business doesn't want qualified workers who are driven and intelligent?  It is up to these companies to start hiring these people and training them before their work force retires and the institutional memory of their organization walks out the door. 

If these companies are going to hire these people then they are going have a few culture changes.  These new hires are not going to accept AS400 or green screen systems.  They are accustomed to web based or narrow client server systems.  They know how to Tweet, post information on Facebook, and use smart phones rather than fiddle with fax machines.  Finally, these new hires move information at the speed of the internet.  They are going to be a great addition to these companies. They are also going to demand new systems.  This is where E₃ systems will help.  E₃ has the products and experience companies need to get businesses to move at internet speed.