Greetings from the Boone EDC,

"For all the implications of 'sprawl'-from job loss and economic decline, to alarming obesity, asthma rates, and segregation, to the loss of habitat and global warming, to our dangerous dependence on foreign oil-all of them are driven by one fundamental problem: the mismatch between where we live and where we work."

This statement, made by Shaun Donavan, secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), in a White House blog in June 2010, depicts the serious issues facing the United States and other countries caused by decades of impractical and inefficient development. Sprawl, both urban and suburban, has had extremely negative consequences, aggravated by impractical zoning regulations and development trends that isolate residential, office, entertainment, and retail districts.

Despite high unemployment companies say they find it hard to hire people. Unemployment has reached record levels in many countries. Yet more than a third of employers around the world are still having trouble filling vacancies, according to a ManpowerGroup survey of nearly 40,000 employers in 41 countries. Workers in skilled trades (electricians, plumbers, bricklayers and so on) are in shortest supply, followed by engineers and sales people. 

Talent shortages are most acute in Asia, particularly in Japan where an ageing population is exacerbating the problem. Only in France has the proportion of employers struggling to find appropriate talent increased significantly since last year (from 20% to 29%). In Italy, by contrast, it has halved from 29% to 14%. Overall, employers are less concerned about the impact of skills shortages than they were in 2011. This may be because companies are becoming more comfortable conducting business in an uncertain environment where talent shortages persist.