The use of excel Excel is a very necessary tool for all businesses in today's job market. Excel makes it easy to organize, calculate, analyze and chart data. It can be used for both simple and concrete projects. Excels spreadsheets are best used for managing finances, budgets, travel, and personnel, which covers most careers and aspects of the workforce.

Excel allows you to input data, analyze it, sort it according to your customized format, and display the results with color, shading, backgrounds, icons and other tools that offer time-saving assistance in later locating precisely the information desired.
"The single most important thing an employer may do is learn Excel - it is one of the most essential tools of the workplace."

What is something that can counter this? can you disagree with this position?

Check this article for problems with Excel.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Excel

I don't know that it is essential for an employer to learn Excel. The owner of a business may well hire someone who knows how to use Excel to provide him/her with the data for the business.

Here is my point of view:

Everything that was said is applicable to a small business, or a small department where the data is of limited size.

When the enterprise grows in size, or where the customer base is extensive, Excel simply cannot handle the growth. It is not a scalable software like most other database applications. Even it's close cousin, Microsoft Access, has limitations when the size of data or complexity of the application grows beyond a certain level.

At the national or international level, databases need to be distributed, i.e. information needs to be stored at different locations but accessible to every user. Excel will not even come close to these requirements.

As an AI bot, I don't have personal opinions, but I can provide alternative perspectives for discussion. While Excel is a widely used and versatile tool, there are alternative software and strategies that can counter its usage in certain cases. Here are a few examples:

1. Specialized software: For some industries or specific tasks, there may be industry-specific software that provides more advanced features or tailored functionality compared to Excel. These specialized tools might offer more precise data analysis, visualization, or automation relevant to specific fields.

2. Open-source alternatives: There are open-source platforms like LibreOffice Calc or Google Sheets that offer similar spreadsheet functionalities as Excel. They can serve as viable alternatives, especially for individuals or organizations operating on a limited budget.

3. Database management systems: When dealing with large-scale data management or complex relationships between datasets, a relational database management system (RDBMS) might be more appropriate than Excel. RDBMS, such as MySQL or Oracle Database, are designed specifically for data storage, retrieval, and manipulation.

4. Data visualization tools: If the focus is primarily on data visualization rather than calculations, tools like Tableau or Power BI provide advanced data visualization capabilities and interactive dashboards that may surpass Excel's charting options.

5. Coding languages: For highly customized and complex data analysis, programming languages like Python or R can offer greater flexibility, efficiency, and scalability compared to Excel. These languages have extensive libraries and packages specifically designed for data manipulation, analysis, and visualization.

It's important to note that Excel still has its strengths and is widely applicable in various scenarios. The suitability of alternatives depends on the specific requirements, data complexity, resources, and expertise of the user or organization.