SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
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: 3, Disagree) by GlennC on Friday August 25 2017, @05:21PM (3 children)
I wholeheartedly agree with you on the responsible parties. I'm just pointing out that for certain recognized minorities it's slightly less bad.
Sorry folks...the world is bigger and more varied than you want it to be. Deal with it.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 25 2017, @06:25PM
Reference?
I'm not necessarily disputing the claim - I'd actually just like to look at the data. Typically, low-status minorities, as a group, have things worse than the majority group.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 25 2017, @06:39PM
Nixon's Southern Strategy (adopted by Reagan):
When a black or brown guy is out of work, it's -his- fault.
When -you- are out of work, it's a black or brown guy's fault.
(It's never the fault of the Capitalist Ownership Class which actually decides who gets hired.)
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Alias on Friday September 01 2017, @02:22AM
It really isn't less bad for those minorities. They are just getting hired because it is assumed they won't negotiate pay as well and will therefore be cheaper.