Where do you find good people?

With the economic recovery underway, employers say they're having a hard time finding qualified people to hire.

Fact is, it's been a while since many companies have had to hire people and the pool of applicants has been shrinking since many firms have been growing.

So where do you find good people?

In a recent survey of Lee County executives, researchers at Florida Gulf Coast University asked companies for their preferred method of recruiting.

At the top of the list: networking and referrals. More than half of companies (52%) say that's their preferred method of recruiting. Next favored method was public and private Internet job sites (cited by 18% of respondents), company websites (7%), internship and apprentice programs (6%) and college and university placement programs (5%).

At the bottom of the list: Social media, newspapers and job fairs were cited as the least-preferred recruiting methods.