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The Federal Reserve?s reports last week cited growing demand and labor shortages in select areas across the country, but also very little growth in wages which may be necessary to bring more people into the labor market to fill the openings. The most extreme example is North Dakota which has a jobless rate of 2.6% and the U.S. Postal Service losing qualified candidates to fast food restaurants because wages are similar. Most other areas of the nation are seeing wage stagnation because of labor mismatch, a situation where candidates are unqualified for the positions that are open. According to a Price Waterhouse Cooper survey, more than one quarter of multinational manufacturers say that their growth in the next year will be hindered because they are unable to find qualified workers. Similarly, the National Association for Independent Business says that more than one-fifth of small business owners say that openings remain unfilled because of a lack of qualified candidates. Yet contrasting these results is an unwillingness by the same executives and the same small business owners to increase compensation for those open positions.