WANTED: GREAT COMMUNICATORS

Some 74 percent of executives say there is a scarcity of job candidates with good interpersonal and communications skills, according to a nationwide survey by Robert Half International Inc., a recruiter of accounting, information systems, and banking professionals. Executives at 200 of the nation's 1,000 largest companies were asked what skills, besides job-related ones, are hardest to find in candidates. Interpersonal skills topped the list with 37 percent, followed by writing (24 percent) and oral communications (13 percent).