Logistics is changing, and you will need college grads...start now.

Since joining Twitter, I have found it interesting to learn about other people and events 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:
According to job placement firm Adecco, about 60% of recent graduates have been unable to find a full-time job in their chosen profession; a recession made finding work very difficult, and a living wage was difficult.

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

They are accustomed to web-based or narrow client-server systems.
In other words, many people in the trucking, shipping, and warehouse business are preparing to retire. There are 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 hire and train them before their workforce 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 to 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 smartphones 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.