In 2002, the Oakland Athletics, the team with the third lowest payroll in Major League Baseball, won as many games as the New York Yankees. The Oakland A’s won more games than they lost in every season from 1999 through 2006. What separated them from the other 29 teams in the MLB was their General Manager, Billy Beane, and his Harvard-educated statistician, Paul DePodesta. Beane and DePodesta were the pioneers of “Moneyball,” an advanced statistical model that found high performing players that were overlooked and undervalued in the market.

Moneyball swept the sports industry and played a role in 15 of 30 teams getting into at least one post-season series between 2011 and 2013. It heralded the era of analytics, an era in which those who leverage data gain a competitive advantage in the marketplace. Just as in baseball in the early 2000s, businesses today are aggressively vying for talent, but are overlooking and undervaluing five key talent pools.

Women Over 50

The United States ended 2015 at 5% unemployment, an unemployment rate at which the majority of economists would consider the country to be at a state of “full employment.” Meanwhile, millions of Americans have yet to regain a foothold in the workplace. Women over the age of 50 have found the post-recession economy particularly difficult to navigate. The long-term unemployment rate increased disproportionately for older women in the wake of the Great Recession, making the job search statistically more difficult for them since 2008. A 2015 study conducted by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis revealed that in the two years preceding the Great Recession, less than a quarter of women over the age of 50 were out of work for six months or longer, but in the two years following the Great Recession, half of all women in this age group were out of work for at least six months.

Laid off and out of work caused men and women in this age group to lean on family, retirement savings, and the equity in their homes. Once unemployed, men and women in this age group are, on average, out of work longer than their younger counterparts. This is especially the case for women over the age of 50, who are more likely than their male counterparts to have left the labor force entirely. With the average age at which non-retired Americans expect to retire being 66, women in this age group have many years left to contribute in the workforce.

American Moms

There is a highly educated, highly experienced talent pool that is leaving the workforce in dramatic numbers: American moms. American moms spend years advancing their careers and then unexpectedly (at least to their employers) opt-out, creating a significant gap in the talent pool. A 2013 study of over 2,000 women with children under the age of 18 revealed that 76% held a college degree, 58% had between 6 and 15 years of experience, and more than half would have continued working if their employer had offered them a more flexible work arrangement. Nearly half of all highly qualified women with children leave their careers or put them on hold for a period of time. More than a quarter of them do not return to the workforce.

For mothers of low- and middle-income families, it might make better financial sense for them to leave their careers and not return to work if the cost of childcare exceeds the income they would have otherwise earned. A 2014 poll conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation, in partnership with the New York Times, revealed that nearly three-quarters of women who identified as “homemakers” and have not looked for a job in the last year would consider reentering the workforce if they were offered flexible hours or the opportunity to work from home. Highly educated, highly experienced moms can contribute significant value in the workplace, but employers have to be willing to structure the work so that they can contribute.

Americans with Disabilities

Americans with disabilities are struggling to find employment. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the employment-to-population ratio for working-age Americans with disabilities stood at 17.2% as of December 2015. Americans with disabilities represent 11.7% of our working-age population, yet only 3.6% of the 157,245,000 Americans in the workforce. This represents a tremendous value proposition to businesses facing talent shortages nationwide.

Companies like PepsiCo and American Express understand that hiring Americans with disabilities isn’t about being charitable or doing the right thing, it simply makes good business sense. Hiring this demographic not only drives a more inclusive culture, the workplace itself stands to benefit from the diverse education, experience, and perspective Americans with disabilities bring to the table.

Working-Age Americans Lacking Broadband Access

The lack of broadband access can be a tremendous impediment to job seekers. Despite various state and federal initiatives promoting broadband adoption, one in three working-age Americans still do not subscribe to high-speed internet services. According to the Pew Research Center, of those without high-speed internet access, 37% indicate it would be difficult for them to draft a résumé, 30% indicate it would be difficult to submit an online job application, and 27% indicate it would be difficult to locate jobs available in their area. The disparity in broadband access, generally attributed to the cost of high-speed internet services, fuels a perpetuating cycle for those Americans struggling to secure employment. It goes without saying that employers would be foolish to ignore one-third of the working-age population.

The Fully Employed

That’s right! The fully employed are an untapped talent market. In 2015, roughly 33% of working-age Americans with a full-time job took on another job to supplement their income. What’s more, 89% of this population intends on keeping their second job in 2016. In an economy where jobs are abundant, but wages are stagnant, the idea of taking on a part-time job has become very attractive. Should employers rule out the need for a full-time employee, a fully employed worker might just be their next hire.

Conclusion

With businesses nationwide facing talent shortages, business leaders need to summon the courage to staff their workforces by leveraging data and modernizing the business practices. In today’s economy, the talent you need to gain a competitive advantage might just reside in the overlooked and undervalued.