America is surprisingly mediocre at developing, attracting and retaining a workforce talented enough to satisfy its corporate needs, according to a study released Tuesday by the Swiss-based International Institute for Management Development business school.

That study ranked the U.S. 14th among more than 60 international competitors, based on factors like public investment in education, availability of apprenticeships and employee training programs, citizens' general quality of life, the country's ability to attract talented foreign labor and the overall quality of domestic skilled workers, among other considerations.

Though the caliber of domestic watches and chocolate weren't explicitly defined as factors in the study's methodology, Switzerland still managed to claim the top spot. The Swiss ranked No. 2 in terms of employee investment and development and No. 1 for apprenticeships – which is hardly surprising, considering studies estimate about 30 percent of Swiss companies and 70 percent of Swiss teens are actively involved in vocational education and training, which in many instances allows them to take on responsibilities typically delegated to an entry-level employee.

For comparison's sake, U.S. News estimates only about 38 percent of 2013 graduates from American universities participated in any kind of internship during their collegiate careers. That's almost half of Switzerland's percentage, and some Swiss programs are open to workers as young as 16 years old – much younger than the typical American college student.

"Pure economic power and talent don't always go hand-in-hand," Arturo Bris, a professor at IMD and director of the school's World Competitiveness Center, said in a statement Wednesday accompanying the report. "The fact is that [Switzerland] has consistently achieved a positive balance between encouraging local talent and tapping into top talent from other countries."

America also underwhelmed when the study profiled women in the workplace. The U.S. ranked 18th in terms of the number of women in the domestic labor market as a percentage of the total labor force. The study estimates that women account for only about 46.8 percent of those in America employed or actively looking for work – an estimate that's reinforced by data in the Bureau of Labor Statistics' October employment report.

That places the U.S. below Lithuania, Latvia, Brazil, Kazakhstan, Portugal and Estonia, among others. And considering the Census Bureau estimates more than half (50.8 percent) of the U.S. population in 2014 was female, it's disconcert to see America score so disappointingly on this metric.

The U.S. did manage to rank particularly well in terms of talent appeal, ranking second overall and second in terms of cost of living among among the Top 10 most appealing countries in which to work. America placed fourth based on its companies' ability to attract and retain talent and third in attracting skilled foreign workers.

But the U.S. proved to be relatively bad at developing its own skilled workforce, as the likes of Malaysia, Australia, Canada, Iceland, Ireland, Singapore and others consistently outranked America in terms of skill availability and workforce competency. America was listed 25th in skilled labor, 38th in labor force growth and 42nd in language skills.

It's important to keep in mind that in terms of sheer gross domestic product, the U.S. is still far and away the world's largest economy. But the country's labor force cracks identified in this study are beginning to show on U.S. jobs numbers. The domestic labor market in September held 5.5 million job openings – the second-highest total on record. But hiring cooled off, suggesting employers are having a difficult time finding the workers that they need.

"America has 5.5 million open jobs today, and what's interesting is, when you dive into those numbers, a half million, the largest sector, is in the information technologies area," Megan Smith, the Obama Administration's chief technology officer, said during a press call Monday discussing the White House-backed TechHire Initiative technology-focused training program. "Companies urgently need to fill these jobs."

But firms aren't easily finding workers with the skills they need. Stagnant wages and insufficient hiring perks could be partially at fault for skilled workers' reluctance to leave their current positions, but the sheer number of open jobs in the U.S. paints a picture of a domestic economy whose job-seekers don't have the skills employers are looking for.

TechHire is one of America's more prominent labor initiatives aimed at closing that gap. The program first launched back in March as a collection of 21 communities dedicated to fostering skilled labor and helping connect aspiring tech workers, particularly those from the millennial generation, with the skills they need to land a job. It organizes training workshops and courses for people of all ages to get their tech proficiency up to speed, with a particular focus on youth training.

Since March, 12 major U.S. cities (including Washington, Pittsburgh, Baltimore and New Orleans) and two states (Maine and Rhode Island) have joined the program, which has pledged to commit $100 million to expanding STEM training across the country to help close what's becoming an increasingly apparent skills gap.

"This is not about train and pray, where we train workers and pray that there's going to be employers out there to hire them," Labor Department Secretary Thomas Perez said on the press call Monday. "Employers are helping design the training. Employers are then taking the young people who are trained and putting them to work in jobs. So employers are an indispensable part of this partnership."

Programs like the Obama administration's TechHire Initiative are helping ensure that the country doesn't move down international rankings without a fight. But time will tell if this and other efforts to boost the availability of skilled labor in the U.S. will prove effective. Rhetoric out of several 2016 presidential hopefuls, however, suggests politicians are picking up on the skills problem and are interested in trying to turn things around.