It's a tight job market, with companies coping with talent shortages and unfilled jobs. Not only are workers aging out of the job market, but younger people aren't staying in one company anywhere near as long as older workers used to—exposing employers not just to vacant jobs but also to a talent drain. While slightly higher pay and a sharper focus on benefits are helping to recruit new workers, employers haven't exactly opened their purse strings as much as prospective employees are looking for, so bosses are having to resort to unconventional talent pools to keep their businesses running. In fact, among others, they're taking another look at candidates they might never have considered before, or even that they had considered but rejected. Related: Stuck in a low-wage job? Try sales, new study suggests While some companies are reacting to the labor shortage by doing more with fewer employees, others are being more creative in their approach to the existing labor pool, venturing forth to recruit in demographic groups they might never have considered before—or certainly not as a regular source of employees. And it's paying off, to varying degrees, even though sometimes that means taking on people who have little or no experience in the fields to which they're recruited. Inexperienced workers can gain experience on the job, those with no training or education in a given field can learn, and sometimes those from other demographic groups can provide businesses with alternate approaches to getting the job done that pay off in more than a day's work.