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The idea that American workers are being left in the dust because they lack technological savvy does not stand up to scrutiny. Our focus should be on coordination and communication between workers and employers.
Technology enthusiasts and entrepreneurs are among the loudest voices declaiming this conventional wisdom (see "The Hunt for Qualified Workers").
Two recent developments have heightened debate over the idea of a "skills gap": an unemployment rate below 5 percent, and the growing fear that automation will render less-skilled workers permanently unemployable.
Proponents of the idea tell an intuitively appealing story: information technology has hit American firms like a whirlwind, intensifying demand for technical skills and leaving unprepared American workers in the dust. The mismatch between high employer requirements and low employee skills leads to bad outcomes such as high unemployment and slow economic growth.
The problem is, when we look closely at the data, this story doesn't match the facts. What's more, this view of the nation's economic challenges distracts us from more productive ways of thinking about skills and economic growth while promoting unproductive hand-wringing and a blinkered focus on only the supply side of the labor market—that is, the workers.
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/608707/the-myth-of-the-skills-gap/
What do you think, is there a shortage of skilled workers ??
(Score: 5, Interesting) by bzipitidoo on Friday August 25 2017, @04:01PM (2 children)
Of course there isn't a shortage of skilled workers! I saw news stories crying over the supposed lack of skilled workers even in 2008-2010, when the Great Recession had pushed unemployment to 25%, and more than a few of the unemployed were tech workers. We also heard proof that the H1B program was being manipulated, with seminars offered to businesses advising them how best to do it. We've all heard of job postings asking for more years of experience in a technology than that technology has existed, blatant stuff like "wanted: 10 years experience in Windows Server 2008".
What seems in shorter supply these days is honesty and respect for facts and science. I hoped the Bush Administration's use of lies and propaganda to start a completely stupid, wasteful, unnecessary, and cruel war in Iraq would spur long lasting changes for the better and so bring about some good from that war. Instead, it seems only to have whet their appetites for more. What is Trump likely to do should the noose of impeachment get too tight around his neck? Distract everyone if he can, and what better distraction than a war? He might like the infamy from being the first since WWII to use nuclear bombs. Then there will be plenty of jobs in the armed forces. Or, dead people don't need jobs.
The only question is war with whom? North Korea is plainly too pathetically weak to grab everyone's attention, despite their history of nuclear blackmail. Might be able to play up Iran as big and strong enough to pose a threat, but that one is also hard to credit. Mexico, for refusing to pay for a border wall? No, it's got to be a bigger power, and of the big ones, maybe China is the easiest to paint black, what with them still being Commies and all. Russia would seem a likely choice if Trump wasn't such an admirer of Putin, maybe even had their help getting elected. And Russia and China aren't friends with each other, far from it. I can see Russia liking the idea of hostilities between the US and China, as long as it doesn't get out of hand and the nukes start flying.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by mhajicek on Friday August 25 2017, @08:21PM
There does appear to be a shortage of skilled workers in the CNC machining industry. A lot of us left the field during the recession after being "downsized" like a commodity, and switched to less stressful and demanding careers, or retired a bit early. Most of those remaining are approaching retirement age now; at 42 I'm one of the youngest among my peers. There are a few younger than me but they are few and far between; people don't want to enter an industry where you have to start at the bottom and sweep the floors for a while until you've learned enough not to be dangerous on a machine, especially since the industry has shown that if the stock market dips they'll toss you out on the street. As a result, those with the skills can demand top dollar, but in another decade or two the manufacturing industry is going to be hurting. It takes at least 20 years to make someone with 20 years of experience, you can't just poof them onto existence on demand.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Saturday August 26 2017, @12:53AM
Nobody is saying American workers are too unskilled anymore, because they know that we know they are full of shit.
Now their other dominoes are falling as well -- the "diversity" myths and their hysterical PC monocultures being two of them.