On the surface, there’s no reason talent leaders shouldn’t be able to find top talent. Thanks to a sputtering economy there are more candidates in the job market than ever. So why is it so hard for companies to find the right people?

A glut of job candidates in the marketplace doesn’t necessarily mean those candidates are suitable for open positions. Further, the number of available candidates requires skill and resources to find the right fit. According to research from the Human Capital Media Advisory Group, the research arm of Talent Management magazine, while qualified candidates are seemingly more available than ever, some 58 percent of organizations surveyed still struggle to find top talent for many high-skill and technical positions.

Not everyone agrees on the lack of top people, however. In his article “The Skills Shortage” on page 19, Wharton professor Peter Cappelli argues there is no talent shortage. The problem is, companies don’t want to pay the salaries top talent can demand, nor do they want to invest the time and dollars to identify and develop high-potential candidates. Research indicates this is a valid point. Only 33 percent of companies surveyed indicate their talent acquisition programs are fully integrated with other talent management functions, such as performance management and learning and development. Without that integration it can be tough to bring a recruit in need of specific skills development up to speed before the employment relationship sours.

Hiring for attitude and then training for skill isn’t a bad strategy. Appropriate development options are not always costly, and most of the resources needed to bring a new recruit up to speed can be found within a company’s talent and learning departments.

If full-time options aren’t available, timely or feasible, many organizations increasingly make use of the large and flexible contingent workforce. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, since June 2009, staffing firms and temp agencies have added 557,000 jobs, or 54 percent of all jobs created.

To be effective, it’s up to talent acquisition leaders to use the right blend of internal and external resources to meet their current and future needs with a cost-effective approach to sourcing that will produce right-fit employees when needed.