Workplace trends for 2006

What's in store for the coming year? Here are the Herman Group's 2006 Workforce Trends, courtesy of Anita Campbell's Small Business Trends. They strike us as right on the money:

1. Intensifying competition for qualified workers.
2. Gradually increasing attention to employee retention.
3. Increasing investment in older workers.
4. Shift in retirement plans to lifetime lifestyle funding.
5. Continued off-shoring of some work, coupled with return of other work.
6. Larger investment in corporate training.
7. Growth in telecommuting.
8. Expansion of staffing industry.
9. Heightened flexibility in work arrangements.
10. Employer dissatisfaction with product of schools.

Some other trends and predictions that we found interesting:

• Watson Wyatt Forecasts Top 10 Workplace Trends in 2006.
  
• Trends in litigation, an article by Morgan O'Rourke of Risk Management.
  
• Mathew Holt of The Health Care Blog offers his thoughts on the Top 5 trends to watch in 2006, via Joe Paduda who comments on these predictions.
  
• From Career Builder: Job trends: what to watch for in 2006 and the Top 25 jobs. (For more on employment projections, you can also go to the source, the Bureau of Labor Statistics page on employment projections through 2014, sliced and diced by demographic, industry, job sector, and more.