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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, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 25 2017, @08:23PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 25 2017, @08:23PM (#559100)

    And concrete pump operator (latter will take more years to get 'qualified', but is just as high paying of a job, generally lower risk, but a lot dirtier at the end of the day.)

    An ex-friend went through this quandry around 10-12 years ago. He went from tech (bubble burst right as he finished) to culinary arts (had a knack for it, but nobody local was hiring outside of temp jobs while their 'regular staff' was on vacation.) Long story short, after a personal loss while going broke, a friend sponsored him to go take a CDL class for a month. In his first year he was making 133% of what he would've made 'entry level' as either a chef or a computer tech, despite years and a degree in each. And within 2 years he was making approx 200 percent pay, although due to seniority his work could be irregular. You know what the sick part was though? He also made *MUCH* more in unemployment thanks to yearly pay raise and as long as his previous year's pay was high he could get ~25 percent of that even during months long lulls in work, meaning he made more unemployed as a truck driver than he would've made busting his ass in a minimum wage job during the lulls. And since they usually had work show back up within a month or two he didn't even have to go job hunting, but could leech off unemployment when he was bumped for low senority, then get paid the big bucks when jobs were flush again.

    Makes you feel sorry for the little guys who bust their ass 8-16 hours a day for work, get barely 4 hours sleep, and are making close to minimum wage at each job. When they get fired or laid off they're lucky to get enough to cover their bills at the end of the night, but those truck drivers are going to be doing ok either way unless they grossly mismanaged their finances.

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