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posted by cmn32480 on Friday August 25 2017, @03:18PM   Printer-friendly
from the do-we-need-a-bridge dept.

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 ??


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  • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 25 2017, @07:32PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 25 2017, @07:32PM (#559080)

    A way to demonstrate that all capital is only a representation of the labor of The Working Class would be a general strike.

    This, however, was outlawed (by both Repugs and Dumbocrats) via The Taft-Hartley Act in 1947.
    There has been no serious effort by any politician of which I am aware to improve this state of affairs for Joe Average.

    -- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]

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