Every year, the Manpower Group, a human resources consultancy, conducts a worldwide “Talent Shortage Survey.” Last year, 35% of 38,000 employers reported difficulty filling jobs due to lack of available talent; in the U.S., 39% of employers did. But the idea of a “skills gap” as identified in this and other surveys has been widely criticized. Peter Cappelli asks whether these studies are just a sign of “employer whining;” Paul Krugman calls the skills gap a “zombie idea” that “that should have been killed by evidence, but refuses to die.” The New York Times asserts that it is “mostly a corporate fiction, based in part on self-interest and a misreading of government data.” According to the Times, the survey responses are an effort by executives to get “the government to take on more of the costs of training workers.”
Really? A worldwide scheme by thousands of business managers to manipulate public opinion seems far-fetched. Perhaps the simpler explanation is the better one: many employers might actually have difficulty hiring skilled workers. The critics cite economic evidence to argue that there are no major shortages of skilled workers. But a closer look shows that their evidence is mostly irrelevant. The issue is confusing because the skills required to work with new technologies are hard to measure. They are even harder to manage. Understanding this controversy sheds some light on what employers and government need to do to deal with a very real problem.
This issue has become controversial because people mean different things by “skills gap.” Some public officials have sought to blame persistent unemployment on skill shortages. I am not suggesting any major link between the supply of skilled workers and today’s unemployment; there is little evidence to support such an interpretation. Indeed, employers reported difficulty hiring skilled workers before the recession. This illustrates one source of confusion in the debate over the existence of a skills gap: distinguishing between the short and long term. Today’s unemployment is largely a cyclical matter, caused by the recession and best addressed by macroeconomic policy. Yet although skills are not a major contributor to today’s unemployment, the longer-term issue of worker skills is important both for managers and for policy.
Nor is the skills gap primarily a problem of schooling. Peter Cappelli reviews the evidence to conclude that there are not major shortages of workers with basic reading and math skills or of workers with engineering and technical training; if anything, too many workers may be overeducated. Nevertheless, employers still have real difficulties hiring workers with the skills to deal with new technologies.
Why are skills sometimes hard to measure and to manage? Because new technologies frequently require specific new skills that schools don’t teach and that labor markets don’t supply. Since information technologies have radically changed much work over the last couple of decades, employers have had persistent difficulty finding workers who can make the most of these new technologies.
Consider, for example, graphic designers. Until recently, almost all graphic designers designed for print. Then came the Internet and demand grew for web designers. Then came smartphones and demand grew for mobile designers. Designers had to keep up with new technologies and new standards that are still changing rapidly. A few years ago they needed to know Flash; now they need to know HTML5 instead. New specialties emerged such as user-interaction specialists and information architects. At the same time, business models in publishing have changed rapidly.
Graphic arts schools have had difficulty keeping up. Much of what they teach becomes obsolete quickly and most are still oriented to print design in any case. Instead, designers have to learn on the job, so experience matters. But employers can’t easily evaluate prospective new hires just based on years of experience. Not every designer can learn well on the job and often what they learn might be specific to their particular employer.
The labor market for web and mobile designers faces a kind of Catch-22: without certified standard skills, learning on the job matters but employers have a hard time knowing whom to hire and whose experience is valuable; and employees have limited incentives to put time and effort into learning on the job if they are uncertain about the future prospects of the particular version of technology their employer uses. Workers will more likely invest when standardized skills promise them a secure career path with reliably good wages in the future.
Under these conditions, employers do, have a hard time finding workers with the latest design skills. When new technologies come into play, simple textbook notions about skills can be misleading for both managers and economists.
For one thing, education does not measure technical skills. A graphic designer with a bachelor’s degree does not necessarily have the skills to work on a web development team. Some economists argue that there is no shortage of employees with the basic skills in reading, writing and math to meet the requirements of today’s jobs. But those aren’t the skills in short supply.
Other critics look at wages for evidence. Times editors tell us “If a business really needed workers, it would pay up.” Gary Burtless at the Brookings Institution puts it more bluntly: “Unless managers have forgotten everything they learned in Econ 101, they should recognize that one way to fill a vacancy is to offer qualified job seekers a compelling reason to take the job” by offering better pay or benefits. Since Burtless finds that the median wage is not increasing, he concludes that there is no shortage of skilled workers.
But that’s not quite right. The wages of the median worker tell us only that the skills of the median worker aren’t in short supply; other workers could still have skills in high demand. Technology doesn’t make all workers’ skills more valuable; some skills become valuable, but others go obsolete. Wages should only go up for those particular groups of workers who have highly demanded skills. Some economists observe wages in major occupational groups or by state or metropolitan area to conclude that there are no major skill shortages. But these broad categories don’t correspond to worker skills either, so this evidence is also not compelling.
To the contrary, there is evidence that select groups of workers have been had sustained wage growth, implying persistent skill shortages. Some specific occupations such as nursing do show sustained wage growth and employment growth over a couple decades. And there is more general evidence of rising pay for skills within many occupations. Because many new skills are learned on the job, not all workers within an occupation acquire them. For example, the average designer, who typically does print design, does not have good web and mobile platform skills. Not surprisingly, the wages of the average designer have not gone up. However, those designers who have acquired the critical skills, often by teaching themselves on the job, command six figure salaries or $90 to $100 per hour rates as freelancers. The wages of the top 10% of designers have risen strongly; the wages of the average designer have not. There is a shortage of skilled designers but it can only be seen in the wages of those designers who have managed to master new technologies.
This trend is more general. We see it in the high pay that software developers in Silicon Valley receive for their specialized skills. And we see it throughout the workforce. Research shows that since the 1980s, the wages of the top 10% of workers has risen sharply relative to the median wage earner after controlling for observable characteristics such as education and experience. Some workers have indeed benefited from skills that are apparently in short supply; it’s just that these skills are not captured by the crude statistical categories that economists have at hand.
And these skills appear to be related to new technology, in particular, to information technologies. The chart shows how the wages of the 90th percentile increased relative to the wages of the 50th percentile in different groups of occupations. The occupational groups are organized in order of declining computer use and the changes are measured from 1982 to 2012. Occupations affected by office computing and the Internet (69% of these workers use computers) and healthcare (55% of these workers use computers) show the greatest relative wage growth for the 90th percentile. Millions of workers within these occupations appear to have valuable specialized skills that are in short supply and have seen their wages grow dramatically.
This evidence shows that we should not be too quick to discard employer claims about hiring skilled talent. Most managers don’t need remedial Econ 101; the overly simple models of Econ 101 just don’t tell us much about real world skills and technology. The evidence highlights instead just how difficult it is to measure worker skills, especially those relating to new technology.
What is hard to measure is often hard to manage. Employers using new technologies need to base hiring decisions not just on education, but also on the non-cognitive skills that allow some people to excel at learning on the job; they need to design pay structures to retain workers who do learn, yet not to encumber employee mobility and knowledge sharing, which are often key to informal learning; and they need to design business models that enable workers to learn effectively on the job (see this example). Policy makers also need to think differently about skills, encouraging, for example, industry certification programs for new skills and partnerships between community colleges and local employers.
Although it is difficult for workers and employers to develop these new skills, this difficulty creates opportunity. Those workers who acquire the latest skills earn good pay; those employers who hire the right workers and train them well can realize the competitive advantages that come with new technologies.
Its funny Krugman declares its fiction when he is the poster child for the skill GAP!! Matter of fact, the whole financial and political landscape is filled with this GAP. The skill-less are left in charge of deciding what is a skill GAP? Just FACKING AMAZING.
By the way FACKING is australian for Beeya.
You are so correct. Did Henry Ford whine about not finding workers with automotive building skills? No. He hired boys right off the farm and trained them to do their jobs. He also paid enough that he coul select the best and brightest.
He also paid enough so they could afford the product they were producing (without going into debt). Made a couple of bucks with that formula, yet that simple formula is completely lost on today's "productive class."
Oil was cheap = everything was cheap. Food, housing, textiles, cars.
Also there was no retiring babyboomer generation weighing disproportionally on the social services provided. No glut of union jobs (and we all know what Ford thoughts of labor unions).
Those days are not coming back because of multitude of factors - not because good'ole uncle's no longer around.
Car industry was also a growth industry not yet saturated.
So many headwinds right now. Life will never be like that again.
paw-paw pointed out that there are mexicans in town who are buying up the little 1950s and 1960s one-story houses. then taking out the roof, building a second floor, and putting a roof back over it.
I suppose if you have certain skills, you might apply them to your own property, family, wealth creation. rather than looking for a higher paying job and using your taxed income to pay someone else to build/repair/improve things for you.
sounds pretty crazy to me though
In my neighbourhood they did something even more amazing. Bought a 1 storey house, peeled it from the foundation and raised it with car jacks just barely enough to put a single layer of bricks. Then they did exactly that - put a row of bricks, waited for the cement to dry and shifted the jacks. And like that, one layer at a time made the former 1st floor a 2nd floor. No need to remove the roof even.
In no time they had an extra space to fill and because the structure was done that way, they could afford to build the base slightly wider than the top. With the method you describe, you're limited by the load capacity of existing walls. Also, you can't live the house while building it.
My neighbouring crew was living in the top section all though the construction period. Somehow they figured how to keep the pipes connected and everything.
That's harder to do if the house is built slab on grade. Hard to live in a jacked up house with no floor.
Definitely, the construction has to permit the modification. Their house was originally a wooden frame over concrete foundation with floor being directly tied to the beams.
I'd not risk adding an extra floor to the top of a wood frame, unless it's a small patio.
"Oil was cheap = everything was cheap."
I'd prefer to say that the dollar was much less devalued back then rather than oil was cheap. All businesses in existence (especially the small ones) are suffering right now with high input costs from a hyperinflated currency and not being able to pass those increased costs on to all of us broke consumers.
The price to extract oil is increased by the cost of all the inputs such as heavy equipment, labor, and supply chain from our inflated fiat currency, not to mention the hyper-regulatory environment that grants monopolies to a select few insiders, HFT algos front-running trades every millisecond, and the TBTF banks directly owning production companies so they can warehouse oil and restrict supply through refineries to jack up prices further, even with falling demand.
All this is a long way of saying that things are royally f*cked up, but the primary barrier to our economy is that there are cartels with monopolies in every sector of life that prevent true price discovery.
"He also paid enough so they could afford the product they were producing (without going into debt). "
Ford practical had a monopoly of auto manufacturing at the time. The Model-T was the iPod of the era and everyone was willing to pay a premium to have one, which afforded Higher salaries (Yes I am aware Apple Outsources Manufacturing to China with Slave wages). Manufacturing today is much more competitive than it was back 100 years ago. Its a sad fact that if a US manufacturer offered the same wages as Ford did back in the day, that they the prices of there products would be so high that few would be able to afford them.
Back then, Henry Ford didn't have to offer healthcare, accident compensation. There was no Osha or other gov't regulations to project workers from dangers. Also see this article as Henry Ford Motovation for raising wages was for less than generous reasons:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2012/03/04/the-story-of-henry-fo...
"At the time, workers could count on about $2.25 per day, for which they worked nine-hour shifts. It was pretty good money in those days, but the toll was too much for many to bear. Ford’s turnover rate was very high. In 1913, Ford hired more than 52,000 men to keep a workforce of only 14,000. New workers required a costly break-in period, making matters worse for the company. Also, some men simply walked away from the line to quit and look for a job elsewhere. Then the line stopped and production of cars halted. The increased cost and delayed production kept Ford from selling his cars at the low price he wanted. Drastic measures were necessary if he was to keep up this production."
Under Capitalism we are all pitted against each other.
Like or Similar to Greg Morse's Idea that Municipal Bonds & Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) are put into Exchange Markets to become part of A-Cementric Warfare. Public Corporations with public stock are subject to Machiavellian warfare.
Sure Small Businesses have to keep their system secret, recipes have to be secret, manufacturing techniques are valuable to the competition... there is plenty of room for proprietary secrets.
Under Capitalism... we keep skills to ourselves so we don't train our replacements who will earn far less compensation.
Under Capitalism... we put people down, spread rumors that they are incompetent, boast that we have the best experience and knowledge... and even try to keep other employees from going to training or college classes.
No problems with Capitalism? Yes, there are problems. Knowledge is power, money, higher compensation, and the basis for lower salaries and compensation.
Barriers? US Education & Technical School Tuition costs... plus all the time you need, debt you incur, and lack of savings you have to pay for training (feel me Federal Reserve when we get ZIRP or LIRP?)
Caravan To Midnight - Episode 110 Capital Kinetics with Greg Morse
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmJKrhWucC0
Bring Out Your Dead.
Bring Out Your Dead.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grbSQ6O6kbs
Some people will look for any excuse not to work hard.
Problem as I see it: most "educated" (credentialed) people are accustomed to being taught or trained. Those why don't gain special skills either aren't extremely smart or they just don't know how to learn difficult things on their own.
Our formal education system is not set up to endow students with the skills they need to educate themselves. (If it were, many teachers would be unemployed.)
I'm reminded of a quotation that (if I recall correctly) appears in a book by Lewis Lapham.
Elite school prof to student: "I don't care what you think. I care only that you know what I think."
It's all about insatiable lust for growth that has squeezed the talent pool dry. Cronyism and greed creating the Peter Principle compounded by the need for everyone "in the working class" to wear as many hats as possible so the corporation only needs to pay your increasingly expensive overhead once (savings go to CEO bonuses). Work 60 hours / week or get replaced by an Indian willing to work for half pay on his Visa before he goes back home and starts his own firm that will directly compete with yours for pennies on the dollar. Made even worse by the education bubble (lust for growth) that has made a Master's Degree the new Bachelor's Degree and a Bachelor's degree the new GED. So you have thousands of kids with mountains of debt flooding the market with liberal arts degrees. Start your career as a debt slave in the face of all I've mentioned above and good luck. Or, you know, work for the government.
To actually see the reality, "intellectuals" like Krugman would have to admit that the fundamental policies they've espoused since the early 1900s has led us to the precipice in 2014. The banks have been sucking the middle class dry for decades, piling up mountains of debt, and now have fewer backs left to stand upon. More people are on goverment assistance than are in the workforce. The foundation is crumbling. The rest of the headlines echo or distract from this.
My advice: network and be able to sell yourself. Actually have skills, not "skills". Be able to PRODUCE SOMETHING. Create value. Be a fair person. Be pragmatic.
+100, and I kiss your ass (metaphorically) for nailing it.
So, reading between all those lines, Rican, you mean I'll have to actually work?
Not if you're a banker or one of their politicians.
Since I got a few Trolls last night here is the link for total US Debt of $59 Trillion:
http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/TCMDO $59.398 Trillion. All Sectors; Credit Market Instruments; Liability, Level
What about the 18,000 "skilled" people Microsoft just layed off ????
Still cant find talent in America???
The trend here seems to be toward a highly automated economy that handsomely pays a few thousand ultra smart guys. Millions of persons less bright can work at Starbucks, Whole Foods, etc.
Remaining tens of millions will be essentially superfluous.
I consider that the local McDonald's now hires highly polished, highly motivated, and embarrasingly polite workers. No ruffians need apply.
git gud
Human Resources. What sort of fucked up department is that? I'm not even going beyond the first line of this one.
I had some co-workers who were around when it was still called Personnel.
Today, you're just a "Human Resource," a biological battery that the corporation can use up until it gets chucked in the trash and replaced by another battery.
Resources produce profits, Companies extract value from Resources.
Wealthy or Elites or Royalty must extract either wealth from middle class or extract wealth from resources.
Capitalism follows this model, but I think also the Catholic Church used this model and even secured lands to build wealth in the Americas and Canada.
USA grew greatly as it took new lands and had businesses & settlers claim land... mining, agriculture, oil, mineral rights, good sea ports, Panama Canal, ... Rail Roads & Highways, Sea Lanes that are protected, Pipelines, ....
We shot ourselves in the head when high schools dropped shop classes.
If a man has never used a cutting torch. he has missed out. Bucket list item for anyone under 25.
Well after you are done cleaning up those jagged/warped edges you just created with your cutting torch, try using a plasma cutter - it's da shizzles :-)
We never got to a cutting torch but we were the last ones to use a spot welder, and boy did we squish all sorts of things living and dead between 'them trodes lol.
Shop class has sucked since the 80's in California anyway. Hours of safety lectures to use a hand held screwdriver and use a worn out piece of sandpaper.
Luckily, I did most of my highschool in Canada where you could actually build things in shop class. I build an end table in woodshop, but some guys did really big projects like a whole china cabinet and one guy even built himself a kayak. Most people just made dildos on the lathe though. Metal shop almost everybody did the same projects usually a fireplace poker or log tongs with the forge. maybe some decorative shit or a dust pan out of sheet metal and usually a mini-canon for a lathe project. gas and arc welding was usually just welding a little cube together. Oh, there was sand casting too, I have a giant aluminum penny somewhere.
At my high school it was around 2002 when IT and shop classes disappeared. No child left behind gives additional funding if the high schools send kids to college and NOT trade school or military. So they expect gear heads to get a liberal arts degree.
You can thank the failed George W Bush presidency for that !!
The only skills that will matter soon are survival skills, and by that I mean shooting, wilderness, hand to hand combat, growing food(discreetly), and of course, knowing how to protect your stack.
skills gap = not the right training and experience willing to work for the slave wage price...... so they'll whine to their paid off congressional lackeys to bring in more H1B slaves
Corps used to train employees or pay them to go to school....all that ended in the 90's with the advent of the H1B program
Exactamundo.
They want 20 years of experience with PHD willing to work for 50k per year 6 days a week for 12 hours a day with no benefits as an "at will" employee.
It's a worldwide phenomenon, you have to be willing to work around the clock at a lot of jobs to get decent $$ (from what I've seen). Even so, with people willing to do that there's still a giant skills gap. Part of it I think is things are just moving fast, it's tough to keep up with tech (as the author points out with some examples). We're all fighting the machines now ultimately. For a job in the 6 figures you gotta stay current to justify your earnings, fall behind a bit and you'll be out!
I totally disagree with the premise of this article.
You can do searches for Economics STEM Glut and you see how we have millions of educated people from programers, biology majors to PhDs. Economists not this.
But apparently the Author of the Article doesn't know this. THIS is a clear indication that the author is not an Economist.
I'm down the middle in my politics. I see the advantage of basing business & government on Conservative Values. Every Democrat & Republican should publicly declare they believe in standardized Financial Instruments and GAAP Accounting and Ratings Agencies that are not paid by the people that produce the Financial Instruments.
This is the reason we had 2008 Financial Crisis. Bankers were breaking deeds of trust and rehypothicating assets of home buyers... but when it all comes out they want to make derivatives out of every asset.
Hey where do our people that worked in skilled manufacturing or software development go after being outsourced? No where. They are skilled people in the USA who can fill jobs... and at this point maybe "Downward Sticky Wages" are not as big a deal as in 2001.
PhDs... where do they get jobs? No one has an answer.
You can do searches for Economics STEM Glut and you see how we have millions of educated people from programers, biology majors to PhDs. Economists not this.
Educated from where? Yeah, a lot of BS phds, but the good ones...nah. Those people are hired no problem. And you don't need a phd either.
If there's this big glut as people like to claim, why are the unemployment rates low?
Hey where do our people that worked in skilled manufacturing or software development go after being outsourced? No where. They are skilled people in the USA who can fill jobs... and at this point maybe "Downward Sticky Wages" are not as big a deal as in 2001.
Avg wage for tech workers in SF is 150k (in san mateo it is 291k), so it's not purely a 'trying to only land the cheapies.' If you talk to recruiters at the big firms they will tell you they have a tough time finding qualified people.
Bahahaha... where do you get unemployment data? Even the FED provides the data you need if you look for it total unemployed for instance and John Williams is recognized as the best on this, but the Wall Street Examiner also refutes the propaganda from Washington, Lee Adler.
- Civilian Labor Force
2014-07: 156,023 Thousands of Persons (+ see more)
Monthly, Seasonally Adjusted, CLF16OV, Updated: 2014-08-01
http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/CLF16OV/
- Civilian Labor Force Participation Rate
2014-07: 62.9 Percent (+ see more)
Monthly, Seasonally Adjusted, CIVPART, Updated: 2014-08-01
http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/CIVPART
other stuff:
http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/ROWFDN... ($3.16 Foreign Investment USA)
http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/GPDI ($2.69 Private Domestic Investment)
http://www.bea.gov/newsreleases/international/intinv/iip_glance.htm
http://www.bea.gov/newsreleases/international/intinv/iip_glance.htm ($26 Trillion foreign compared to $22 for US) (This is very interesting as Big Banks are growing strongly, but the number of total us banks is dramatically decreasing, like someone is gaming the system, Commercial Banks in the U.S. - FRED - St. Louis Fed)
Corporate Taxes end of 2013 = 273.5 Billion (Treasury data end of Fiscal year Sept 2013)
Corporate Profit end of 2013 = $1.9045 Trillion
$273.5/1,904,5 = 14.4% Corporate Tax
http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/DIVIDEND
Speaking of Taxes interesting looking at recovery from the Recession between Individual Tax Revue & Corporate Tax Revenue. I may not be as well read as others. Maybe someone can explain how Individual Taxes took a Dive, then recovered but Corporate Taxes Did not???
Corporate Income Taxes Receipts 1998 = $ 188.7 Billion
Corporate Income Taxes Receipts 2002 = $ 148.0 Billion (Recession)
Corporate Income Taxes Receipts 2006 = $ 353.9 Billion
Corporate Income Taxes Receipts 2007 = $ 370.2 Billion
Corporate Income Taxes Receipts 2008 = $ 304.3 Billion
Corporate Income Taxes Receipts 2009 = $ 138.2 Billion (Recession)
Corporate Income Taxes Receipts 2012 = $ 242.3 Billion
Corporate Income Taxes Receipts 2013 = $ 273.5 Billion
Individual Income Taxes Receipts 1998 = $ 828.6 Billion
Individual Income Taxes Receipts 2002 = $ 858.3 Billion (Recession)
Individual Income Taxes Receipts 2006 = $1.044 Trillion
Individual Income Taxes Receipts 2007 = $1.163 Trillion
Individual Income Taxes Receipts 2008 = $1.146 Trillion
Individual Income Taxes Receipts 2009 = $ .915.3 Trillion (Recession)
Individual Income Taxes Receipts 2012 = $1.132 Trillion
Individual Income Taxes Receipts 2013 = $1.316 Trillion
oh now I'm shown as new? Guess someone is reporting me for false Federal Reserve Data?
You're dumping data but not breaking it out by education. From BLS:
2013, by education attainment
http://www.bls.gov/emp/ep_chart_001.htm
I might be talking out my ass here but:
June 1979 was our Manufacturing Top. Free Trade, NAFTA, CAFTA, WTO Treaty, Other Treaties giving away our Sovereignty.
Probably corporations used Recessions and layoff times to build factories overseas or locate existing factories.
Of course Automation & Robots were coming in too.
Manufacturing:
http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/MANEMP (12 Million down from 19.5 Million) All Employees: Manufacturing
Construction:
http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/USCONS (6 million down from 7.7 Million) All Employees: Construction
Information Services:
http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/USINFO (2.65 Million down from 3.7 Million) All Employees: Information Services
Professional & Business Services:
http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/USPBS (Up a million people since 2008 crash at 19.1 Million) All Employees: Professional & Business Services
Education & Health Services
http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/USEHS (21.4 Million rock steady through 2008) All Employees: Education & Health Services
Government:
http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/USGOVT All Employees: Government
Financial Activities:
http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/USFIRE (7.9 Million down from 8.4 Million) All Employees: Financial Activities
Mining, Drilling, Logging
http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/USMINE (Peak was 1981, now .9 Million down from 1.3 Million) All Employees: Mining and logging
Hospitality & Leisure:
http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/USLAH (14.6 Million, nice trend line) All Employees: Leisure & Hospitality
Goods producing Industries:
http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/USGOOD (19 Million down from 25 Million) All Employees: Goods-Producing Industries
Service Providing Industries:
http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/SRVPRD (119.5 Million) All Employees: Service-Providing Industries
http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/DMANEMP (7.6 Million down from 12.2 Million) All Employees: Durable goods
http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/NDMANEMP (4.5 Million down from 7.2 Million) All Employees: Nondurable goods
http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/CES3231100001 All Employees: Nondurable Goods: Food Manufacturing
http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/CES3231500001 All Employees: Nondurable Goods: Apparel
http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/CES3232400001 All Employees: Nondurable Goods: Petroleum and Coal Products
http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/CES3231400001 All Employees: Nondurable Goods: Textile Product Mills
http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/CEU3231600001 All Employees: Nondurable Goods: Leather and Allied Products
Durable Goods (problem with data limited):
http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/CES3133600101 (.8 Mil down from 1.3 mil) All Employees: Durable Goods: Motor Vehicles and Parts
http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/CES3133400001 (1 mil down from 1.9 mil) All Employees: Durable Goods: Computer and Electronic Products
http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/CES3133410001 (.16 mil down from .38 mil) All Employees: Durable Goods: Computer and Peripheral Equipment
http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/CES3133440001 (.4 Mil down from .7 Mil) All Employees: Durable Goods: Semiconductors and Electronic Components
http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/CEU3132100001 (.37 mil down from .62 mil) All Employees: Durable Goods: Wood Products
http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/CEU3133200001 (1.45 mil down from 1.75 mil) All Employees: Durable Goods: Fabricated Metal Products
http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/CEU3133100001 (.4 mil down from .7 mil) All Employees: Durable Goods: Primary Metals
http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/CES3133700001 (.367 mil down from .68 mil) All Employees: Durable Goods: Furniture and Related Products
Non Manufacturing:
Trade, Transportation & Utilities
http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/USTPU (Recovered at 26.3 Million) All Employees: Trade, Transportation & Utilities
http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/USWTRADE (Recovered to 5.86 Million) All Employees: Wholesale Trade
http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/USTRADE (recovered to 15.3 Million) All Employees: Retail Trade
http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/CES4422000001 (Were Utilities Privatized starting in 1990, down to .55 Mil from .74 Mil) All Employees: Utilities
Transportation & Warehousing:
http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/CES4300000001 (Recovered to 4.6 Million) All Employees: Transportation and Warehousing
http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/CES4348400001 (Recovered to 1.4 Mil) All Employees: Transportation and Warehousing: Truck Transportation
Whoa! Big Chart
http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/CES4348100001 (.46 Mil down from .63 Mil) All Employees: Transportation and Warehousing: Air Transportation
http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/CES4348300001 (recovered to .068 Mil) All Employees: Transportation and Warehousing: Water Transportation
http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/CEU4348200001 (old story here) All Employees: Transportation and Warehousing: Rail Transportation
Note originally I pulled data for retail stores & department stores... will have to review to see if I need additional supporting data for weakness in Retail to speak to your point... but don't see it as applicable.
James_Cole;
BTW Defense Jobs seem to be Blacked Out as well as Aerospace... this is likely due to secrets and national security. But it is mostly Federal Funding and Defense Funding. Mostly you don't see growth in this industry. Profits just go to the top executives. It is a bad Economic Policy if you want to grow jobs... like the Star Wars Programs.
But there is no reason to think NASA has increase employment, rather it has cut jobs.
STEM = Biology, economics? I think not.
Oh Fred,... really what does S stand for? Bacteria can produce energy.
Biology is a girly science and a BS in it doesn't mean shit.
Oh, and it will take a Chem E to scale up and harness any useful energy from your little bacteria.
Owned, bitch.
Well it seems that Chemical Technology is linked to Organic Science and there is much to develop. But I'm not an Engineer or Scientist. If you become a PhD my father says you become unemployable or hard to place in Engineering. This is not a new thing.
Do we really need PhDs in Education? Should we find county money to employ School supervisors for over $120K a year or PhD in Education for more than that? No don't think so.
PhDs have to pay off loans and need special wages or else government grants and programs to help them.
PhDs are all over the STEM Spectrum.
But we lost software development jobs to off-shoring, the thing is.... you get head hunters trying to pump up wages and steal workers for new jobs. Capitalism. Head hunters are not right, they are persuasive and make wages rise.
FredFlintstone;
You are teaching me something here.
Actually, there must have been pressure for Headhunters to go off-shore to look for talent (recruitment). Industry pushed for Off-shore Recruiting as surely as my name is G.W Bush.
This is globalism. Fuck our country men and recruit the cheap foreign labor.... Really worth sometime thinking over this. But don't pretend this is a new story for USA... Chinese Rail Road Laborers, Mining Workers, and all the death that resulted from this.
Corporations and Wealthy People are incapable of Patriotism... well look at Tax Inversion, look at Burger King... Look at the Theft & Fraud in the Iraqi War.
Corporate Patriotism? No, No way. More like Buy a politician times 10.
John Mauldin;
All apologies. I am not familiar with your work. Anyone that can stand in front of the Public... deserves support & understanding of what they are setting out do.
I will challenge your work, but hope that I, like you, can help and become more enlightened.
FredFlintstone;
Good Night Fred.
Greenspan was a huge promoter of H1-B. This was an area where he could really get excited about regarding 'income inequality'. When hedgefund managers are making billion...meh....but when scientists and engineers started to make good money he wanted to support any way to squash it.
http://www.rense.com/general75/skilled.htm
In his book "The Age of Turbulence", (yes, I read it...ugh!!) his addendum to the book is a whole diatribe on how the taxpayer should be squeezed endlessly to pay schoolteachers more since it is for the 'betterment of society' and then goes on to discuss how we should absolutely destroy the wages of scientist and engineers with not a reflection at all on the consequences....What a fucking imbecile!!
Exactly.
Let me share with you a story, I work in IT/Telco for a big company based in the valley area. I have been in this Industry for over 15 years, I am on my late 30s, so I am also in between the boomers and the millennials.
In my career I have seen a period in the late 90's, early 2000s of hiring booms, and perhaps a lack of not enough STEM american candidates, but since 2001, all I have seen is the workforce on IT Consulting, Telecom/Mobility, providers, networking equipment manufacturing go down in employees size through either lay-offs and mergers. Anytime there was a massive lay off wave, these companies will replace most of these workers with cheaper H1Bs mostly from India/Pakistan and China which eventually will move to higher responsibility jobs and hire more of their buddies with more visas.
The whole situation has gone to a point that I dare any of you to go to any of the San Jose-Sunnyvalle-Mountan view-Valley area network equipment companies and you will see floors literally filled with nothing but Indians and Chinese... there are floors with no american people at all, go and see for yourselves.
Another example, this one from this week. We have a new opening in our group and we are reviewing candidates, there is one I like (american guy, late 40s, very experienced, very smart) that I suggested to my manager as a great fit for my team. This guy, although very experienced and with a lot of knowledge is not 'all-knowing' in the new technologies, but he would be up to speed to be send to a customer with some on the job training in less than 3 months. My manager goes back to me and says "yes, he sounds very good but he may be very expensive and we want someone really to start working right away that have hands on experience on X, Y and Z". I told him, look, we can't get someone cheaper and less experienced, but I never seen a unicorn (magical creatures that knows everything, work as slaves, cheap and ready to kick it from the day one)". Sadly, at the end, he seem to be thinking that it would be better to get an H1B with X&Y and another one with Z.... worst of all he is american, and worst of all HR don't give a shit
Kind of back of my mind I want to hit the points that Globalism is going to kill us.
- Globalism means US Reduces Tariffs that would protect US Worker, and maybe create a system of auditing foreign manufacturing and production to guard against "Slavery".
- Currently there is no Auditing and no Equal Work Rights or even fair pay for overtime in places like China and I presume in South America or Latin America
- There must be many arguments to be made that I forget
- In History there was no Land Reform after colonial periods, so this means the controllers of capital are the wealthy Hacienda owners, Lords, Dukes, barons, Junkers, Royalty, usually these families owned the land for agriculture and mining... they still do but some have gone into banking and owning malls
- In the USA we fought for 100 years or more for worker rights and a safe work place... obviously there is no parity in other countries, no reciprocity
- Global Financing makes it possible to Extract Resources around the world and Enlist the US Military to guard Sea Trade Routes
- Reducing Public Education and building global advertising networks allows Propaganda to control young people and kids everywhere and reduce their knowledge, logic, and education levels to build consumers and bring debt to the masses which is defacto enslavement
- Class Systems are what communism warned about, but turns out that the Greedy Executive Class and Political Class prefer to keep jobs scarce and wages low through uncontrolled borders and uncontrolled immigration
- Globalism does much damage to middle classes and market consumption... but it also brings war, right? It also brings ZIRP & LIRP to those than save money. It also brings incentives to paper investments & paper gambling instead of investing in CAPEX or Capital Equipment and Expansion of US Businesses, it also leads to Tax Inversion, Off-shoring of Corporations, and Capital Flight with Brain drain to Industries and Stagnant Capital
"PURPLE SQUIRREL"
https://www.google.com/search?q=purple+squirrel&es_sm=122&tbm=isch&imgil...
Bill Gates is the WORST for that !!
Skills Gap = make employees have Masters or PHD and then pay then $45-50k per year to work 10 -12 hours a day and then be on constant call when off duty.
Employers do not realize that the skills gap took 15-20 years to develop. If you expect a lot and pay crap and there is no job security, people 1) stop applying for those types of jobs, 2) the younger generation decides to do something else when it comes to college. It is unnoticeable at first but as more and more people do this eventually there really is a skills gap. Employers just do not realize its their own fault.
Most of the higher skilled now gravitate toward startups/VC work because it pays more AND you have a chance at perhaps becoming something much bigger and have a stake in it. Traditional companies sell out and the employees get nothing --> 2 months after the merger they get laid off. The only ones that get paid are upper management.
Yeah, offshore as much as possible and don't train anyone.
Who could have thought?
The Germans have been running circles around the U.S. in these areas. They train and certify on the job... With a lot of their skilled jobs.
They have good employee retention and don't hire gobs of foreigners for 2/3rds the pay. A little loyalty goes a long way.
Funny about the benefits of Germans. I think they can travel on the cheap through corporate travel office. They get lots of vacation time with decent salary. They have a Triparty system where the government sits with Unions and Industry or the corporation. It makes sense to formalize the process and look at how we can retrain the employees when business changes or Industry changes. Maybe the government pays a share of retraining of skilled employees. They call this Socialism in the USA. But employees pay taxes. In fact in the USA Individual Income tax is much bigger part of the Tax Revenues in the USA (than corporations).
- Industries change. This means having to retool and build new businesses within partly established distribution networks. It is Logical and looks like good investment (for government to participate in retooling & retraining) if you value your country, your tax base, and your workers.
- In the USA it looks like a sinking ship. Pardon the pun, but rats are jumping on the ship, but the ship is sinking. The Officer Executives want to continue the sea trade, but want lower labor costs and want to stick to low skilled employees to do all the work. In fact this is what the World Cruise Industry does... a little mystery is all the passengers that disappear or get raped on cruises. But the bottom lines still looks good as labor costs are low.
- USA -Loses corporate tax base, loses manufacturing base, focuses on low employment industries in Energy. How dumb is that?
No Jobs policy or Domestic Policy in the USA.
spelling errors corrected...
From what marketing flyer did you take that info?
Outside of the "Ausbildung"/"Lehre", where you can get trained and certified in exchange for accepting 3 years under-average pay, no German employers do large scale training for novices anymore, or just give a novice a chance to learn by himself.
I can tell, by dumb luck I ended up in Switzerland in the late 90's where at that time they were still offering such chances. But that also ended in CH a few years later.
You can start here... It took about 10 seconds to look up. Additionally the Germans don't ship in cheap immigrant labor to replace German nationals.
Vocational Training in Germany - Make it in Germany
You mean government agencies and their websites always tell the undisguised, complete truth?
Firstly I have German family members and friends. Secondly German companies aren't replacing workers with cheap foreign labor, so where's the labor pool and training coming from?
German business is much more efficient and respectful of their labor force then American business could ever hope to be. It's unfortunate and hasn't always been that way.
Many members of my IT team at a famous German bank were replaced by "colleagues" in Prague. Call it near-shoring. They used a merger in order to get rid of those they no longer wanted. I also had to leave. Now at a big retailer who doesn't pay as well, but at least I'm not unemployed, for the moment.
You're living in a dream world, YC.
I grew up and studied in Germany. Things there are (or are becoming) as shitty as in the US, only with about 15 years lag.
so where's the labor pool and training coming from?
From the viewpoint of most bigger companies the answer is: We don't care, but not on our time and money!
Well let's see. Fucking capitalists. To boost profits they exported factory jobs to Asia and gutted machinist training programs, and told everyone to become "information workers" and they either did or they joined the FSA. American doesn't make shit now. Then to boost profits they outsourced all the information jobs to India and told everyone to become "financial workers" and they either did or joined the FSA. American doesn't code shit now.
Now everyone is either a financial worker, or part of the FSA, and America adds no value to any part or corner of the world, except financial fraud.
Oh but wait 20 years on India isn't cheap, China isn't cheap, Japan is blown, finances are on the rocks big time, and America can't even make iPhones in-house. Along comes capitalism wants everyone to go back to school and learn how to make shit and write code. Oh, and on their own dime.
Isn't that cute.
Just go ahead and die you greedy sociopathic motherfuckers because we're all gonna become farmers now. You hear that? Farmers you lazy fuckers. Export your grief to CHina and your sob story to India because nobody in America needs you.
Sing it Blu
Upvoted you, but the land will be directly owned by the greedy sociopathic motherfuckers or indirectly thru property tax. If you have farming skills you might make supervisor if you suck up just right and have connections.
We still make plenty of things, including Freedom Bombs, Democracy Cruise Missiles, and my favorite, Humanitarian Turnkey Regime Change Solutions.
"They told everyone".
Well, nobody told anyone anything. Workers wanted easy desk jobs instead of hard physical ones that left you without a limb of two if you sneezed the wrong way.
Consumers wanted their buck to go further at the store and fewer polluting smokestacks in the backyard.
The reason Asia accepted the work because, unlike in America, is showed a complete disregard for the human life and working conditions, all of which ended up being reflected as subsidies in the price tag.
For you to enjoy "cheap Chinese crap" that everyone verbally hates but keeps buying, a million people somewhere had to spend 7 days a week working, while living in cardboard boxed, drinking dirty water and breathing in toxic fumes. They might've not even chosen it willingly. Their greedy government drove them off their farms do pull off the capitalist transition miracle. It sacrificed them so you could have a piece of colored plastic to put into your baby's mouth in your detached suburbia.
Cheap Chinese plastic? Try making cheap American plastic. See how you like the smell.
Don't like China? Easy! Don't buy China!
Buy yourself a $2000 3D printer and $50 a kilo spool of ABS and make your own bottle caps. Remember - it's the manufacturing renaissance! You no longer have to ship things from overseas!
Spend some time learning CAD software, modeling things and peeling them off the heated platform. Don't be a pussy!
Manufacturing is right there. It's called picking up a tool and making a product. Make good quality at an affordable price and you'll have a proud American business. What do other countries do you can't? How come you loose jobs and they gain? How come it's not other way around? They special?
Quit whining! If things are the way they are, it is because you make it that way. Say it ain't so? Say I am full of shit? Well, what have you personally done then to reverse the trend?
Choose.
Just out of curiosity, where does all that ABS come from? Or plexi? Polypropylene? Teflon? Petroplastics, are they not? New technologies solve NOTHING if the resources they utilize aren't widely available or domestically producable. And seeing as DuPont, the Rockefellers, and the rest of the money power made sure cellulose plastics and fuels will never succeed in this country, barring legalizing industrial hemp, your "small business" would be utterly dependent on Empire.
What does that solve, again?
Not that there aren't meaningful ways to "reverse the trend," nor that 3D printing and a knowledge of CAD couldn't be a small part of that, but they're short-sighted solutions barring this key change in fuel and plastic production.
No you dont have to farm - you can work for yourself.
Appalling. Was this written by a human being? Ya'll Tyler's are there right?
This was a guest post written by John Mauldin.
http://www.mauldineconomics.com/
There's no skills shortage. Companies want to hire and not pay fair market value (not a socialist, an engineer who's been offered less than entry level pay for 10+ years of experience) for a position or expect someone to already be trained in their proprietary systems. Then there's the HR departments that have no idea what they're actually hiring and weeding out perfectly capable people. I could write a book on the nonsense that I've encountered both in hiring and in looking for employment.
If everyone offers you below fair market value, then you need to adjust fair market value lower to reflect the new reality.
You are holding out for a job that pays more than your skills warrant in this environment. If you were worth more, you would be paid more.
Nothing worse than a whinging engineer.
Moral of the story...it's not a "skills" shortage it's that we "Skilled" folks don't get out of bed for less than $50/hour. Yeah...
As an owner of a recruitment company I can attest that there is definitely a skills gap, and it is getting worse.
Add to the list life skills, like knowing how to get to work and keep your job. Reliability and attitude are in short supply right now. We like to say 70% of success is just showing up (sober, on time, ready to work).
The other shortages are critical thinking skills and basic computer skills. So many candidates want wages beyond their skills and are unwilling to make the investments necessary to make themselves more valuable.
Employers are stuck in the old paradigm however. Those that invest in their employees skill sets will thrive. Unfortunately loyalty and mistrust on both the manager/worker side makes these investments tenuous.
sschu
"So many candidates want wages beyond their skills." Spoken like an employer advocate. Another way to look at it is that so many employers want to pay less than the skills are worth. The gap is between what people with skills can make and what employers who can't "find" the skills are willing to pay.
What is wrong with being an "employer advocate".
Are you saying there is something inherently wrong with wanting the best deal possible? Do you overpay as a practice?
Sschu
When you make an employer millions of dollars, yet they want to pay you $35k in a country where people on welfare make the equivalent of $65k there is a problem.
So if it is so easy, if the recruiter's job is gravy, if you can make millions and pay peanuts why don't you take advantage of the circumstance and get rich doing little or nothing?
This is the question that you cannot answer. Because to do so you must confront yourself, your attitude and your I-deserve-someone elses fruits. It is the sorry story of mankind for thousands of years. Envy, you shall not covet, the 10th Commandment.
Envy takes many forms. Marxism has long been proven a grostesque failure, but somehow so many keep thinking there is a free lunch.
Any minute now I will hear about "bankers" and "politicians" and maybe there is some truth to all that. But it is the envy/covet mindset that feeds these guys and they are just too happy to use you. I think it is called "useful idiot".
This kind of discussion is so annoying, almost childlike.
sschu
You are wrong, he is right.
Back when I was insane and in a prior career, I placed our ads, set up the emailaccount, funneled the resume, interviewed.
OH.MY.GAWD.
These were clerical and contract mgmt positions w/o salary defined and the resumes were...1 in 200 were professional, proofread, had no errors, a decent cover letter. If you simply could send me a resume and cover letter that appeared to be written by an adult, you would get an interview.
Of 1,000 respondees, 20 met that level of triage.
I could not BELIEVE what people sent. It was mind blowing.
Nearly everyone out there is an idiot. Over 95%.
How can anyone downvote this guy in the biz. At next job interview make sure you unskilled people remind your potential employer that he should stop belly aching. There is a serious lack of talent and the Asians are taking up the slack.
The HR recruiting folk and recruiting companies are the least skilled of all. They do not code, they do not design. They search resumes based on key words that they do not understand and troll linked in. Then spew their pseudo knowledge on discussion boards like they are experts.
Reading the comments of some phone jockey talk about "basic computer skills" and "critical thinking" disgusts me. How did you get your job? Hired by your family member? Friend?
If it is so easy and mindless, give it a go, you could be rich tomorrow.
How did you get your job? Hired by your family member? Friend?
Nice try, I am secure in where I am and how I got here and it was of my own doing. I am the owner.
Keep the envy and covet mindset going, see where it gets you.
sschu
Did anybody else notice that graphic arts degrees were one of the 10 worst/lowest paying majors in a previous article?
OK, we have poor incentives, zero company loyalty to the workers, poor education that teaches you to be nice instead of teaching you to think, hiring by buzzword, extreme worker mobility so the kids have trouble learning, shitty wages...
What could possibly go wrong?
Employers are just whining. Even friggin' Karl Marx had more class than our whining big business types.
What kind of irreplaceable, valuable skills do you think all these Guatemalan children have? Thank goodness they are here to fill the "gap". And you "recruiter" types like "The Manpower Group" are there to offer them water as they tromp across the desert. Thanks.
I know in the tech sector, most jobs are receiving dozens, sometimes hundreds of qualified applicants. Only to see most of the resumes summarily discarded so insiders and other practices of nepotism and/or hiring of foreigners can be engaged in. If this is happening to top talent, imagine what its like for not-so-top skilled jobs.
Good comments.
Get experienced to the point of competence and go out on your own. Live below your means, save, invest and work really hard and smart. I have been doing the same profession for 30 years and still work almost every day. One thing about starting from the bottom; you never entirely lose the fear and insecurity. What I see in my chillren's friends who are mostly out of work or not working in their desired fields is that they act like its going to work out for them anyway. What I couldn't know when I was 20 yo was that by 50 yo most people are trapped/fooked by prior choices... including consumption and indebtness.
Shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations is more than just a saying.
Pay up sucker. You want a person to come in and handle shit. Milk is 3.99 a gallon.
Henry Ford raised wages to $5 per day..good wages then.
of course that was in silver...about $100 today.
keep stackin...
This is my new skill...
FUCK HIM. Two sentences in and I can recognize the bullshit.
DIE
Bullshit! There is no "skills gap". The whining employers just can't afford the skills. Just two days ago, this site posted a graphic indicating that in the best college majors, 20% are underemployed.
This is total Bullshit. I've got an MBA, and am able to write programming for quantitative analysis, yet when I apply and interview for jobs that require half the "skills" and knowledge that I have, I'm only asked if I know Office! Most of the time the interviewer has never even heard of the software I use, and I'm a white guy from Texas.
MBA's don't write code, not for a living, did you miss the day they taught that?
Better if you don't even talk to anyone in the average business day who writes code. Eww, real work. Stay away from it if you want to be considered management material these days.
Striking out on one's own is probably a lot of peoples' best option. Nobody owes anybody a job. It is disappointing to see some luddism on these posts. My concern is the welfare state/incentives to freeload, not some immigrant willing to pick grapes while someone else thinks they're too good for that.
I'm giving you 1,000,000+'s. Invent your way out of the "employment" ghetto. Grow your own food. Produce what you need and trade your excess. Forget about "employment" by businesses, become the business that employees you.
Precisely, and thanks. If you're so marketable and skilled, then you don't need to rely on somebody else to confirm that. I'm not saying it's easy, but these things aren't linear as far as 'if I get these qualifications, I get this job'.
BTW, Silicon Valley software developers aren't very highly paid. Heck, most of them can't even afford to buy a house with their current salaries in the SFBay area.
Median priced house in San Fran today = $1,000,000
Yup, "highly paid" would be such that the houses could be bought at 2X income, or similar. And $500k/year software engineers in the Silicon Valley are pretty much nonexistent. Most are somewhere between $90k and $150k.
You have to retitle this article.
The title should be "Employers are whining because real skills cost real $$$, and they need money for fat cat CEO bonuses"
Why would anybody with a decent brain and a good education work for peanuts?
So why are income levels for those with skills not rising? Did someone repeal the law of supply and demand.
Fuck the corporations. Fuck the employers. Fuck the foreign workers. Fuck the employer HR wankers. Fuck the "managers", "directors", "associate vice presidents", "vice presidents", "C_O's", "Board Members", etc. You have so fucked up this once great nation, and hardly know that you have. Idiots!
Working people, people who make things and make things work, you had better start shufflin' to the exits, because these clowns are driving the bus over the clif edge at a high rate of speed. Best not be depending on them to get a clue before they and the whole cluster fuck take the dive.
Plant your gardens. Cut your fire wood. Start your business in your garage. Replace these weasels before they can do any more damage.
Avoid making this some dichotomous divide. The issue is government intervention in the economy, propping up what should have failed, and harming would-be SMEs which would make our economy more robust. It is the Fed that is the engine of empire ultimately, in tandem with the MIC. Corporations just respond to incentives.
In one sense it _IS_ a dichotomy, or at least a fairly sharply accentuated gradient. You have many people who perform productive work, and you have people who watch them work and supposedly "manage" things (apply your political labels as you will). The later group (the managerial class) has a huge amount of power and perogative. Those who are "employed" have little to none. It is little wonder that the "employed" workers (those who actually do the work) are marginalized, while the "managerial" class steadily aggregates more and more power and perogative. There are quite a few measures that support this interpretation.
Here is a real world example:
A "Director", who climbed his way up the ranks and who built a powerful network of connections in the organization. The person reminded people that he was a professionally trained XYZ. He was part of a tight little group that crushed some while raising up others. After his firing (due to a new upper level "leadership team" having come into power) this "Director"s secrets have started to come to light: He never even acheived a 2 yr college degree, never had a professional attainment, never did more than fabricate his persona and credentials. Yet, this person and the tight cliche around him, held sway for decades in an organization whose gross reveneus topped $1 Billion per annum.
His salary was very far into the 6 figures. You could not move in this organization without his support. And this scenario is very, very common, and I might contend is THE NORM in the halls of power (so to speak).
Yet, these are the people who "provide leadership" and are guiding this nation into a free fall, and they do not even know that they are doing so.
People who actually accomplish the bulk of the real work, making products and providing services, need to recognize this situation and work toward disassociating themselves from the parasitic class and those organizational structures which they have created. If they do not do so, then when the bus these clowns are driving goes over the side, all the "little people" will end up going over the side WITH them, end of report.
We are already going over the side. Its a bit late, but never too late, to start moving to get off of this crazy train. The soon the better.
Bullcrap. If this were true, you'd be seeing an attempt by domestic business leaders trying to find that so-called maleable 10% that can be re-trained over and over and continue to be effective with the latest skills. Good business would dictate that even if 99% were not re-trainable, just effectively finding a few would be a valid and profitable business case.
The reality is that businesses want highly skilled cheap labor which can be discarded at a moment's notice. Then the re-training costs to go back to entry pay in a new position with a volatile skill that will be worthless in a few years is at their (or government) expense. The top 10% don't have any STEM skills, they have political connections gained through the Ivy League buddy system and nurtured via an underground entertainment and cultural elite economy. Their skill is who they know, not what they know.
Chelsea and the Liberal Royal bluebloods like her are carefuilly nurtured by the Ivy League and Liberal university caste system are an example of those who couldn't survive in an open market but who are among the elite that garner more and more of this country's illicitly acquired wealth......
What a bullshit article as many have already said. The designers making the big bucks have no skills, they have just convinced every company that they need to hire UX designers that do nothing for three times the salary of the designers they already had. Why? because if you don't have a UX designer you'll be left behind.
The big problem is UX design didn't even exist until a few years ago so any designer currently in the workforce is automatically declined by big corporations because they don't have the requisite degree label. So actual degreed UX designers are in short supply even though most of them have no real world experience.
Here's a hint a designers job is user experience. You don't need any ivy league UX designer who played Foosball all day just because it became a buzz word.
On the contrary, the "what we are willing to pay" gap is real. Even in finance some people want "five years experience in sell side front office, MBA and / or CFA" for their shit 100k job. Why apply for that when you can go be a gym teacher in Philadelphia.
As long as 'the management' continues in cutthroat practices which includes shoddy training/orientation, thrashed fringe benefits/wages, and management incompetence/irresponsibility itself...then 'the management' shall whine and naturally point their fingers at the ones that actually do the work. Reaganomics 101.
wwxx
We are told that a great number of jobs are going unfilled while many Americans claim they have been looking for employment and will do almost anything for work. So what gives? How do we reconcile these strange reports? This is my take on this phenomena, it could be called a "tale of two cultures."
It could be that the crux of the employment problem, is cultural in nature and based on unrealistic expectations created over several decades by our growing government centered economy and its generous payouts to those inclined not to work. As a employer I was surprised several months ago that I could not find qualified help for a small job that lasted two months. The fact is the culture of many Americans make them unemployable and going long lengths of time not working has made it worse. More on this subject in the article below.
http://brucewilds.blogspot.com/2012/04/jobs-unfilled-at-time-of-high.htm...
The "skills gap" is a ruse to bring in Hadji H1-B at half price. Or less.
And the biggest enemy to hiring that corporations have is the stunning incompetence of HR staff (HR is where you go if you absolutely can't do anything else). A sharp HR person knows what 1/3 of the words mean on a professional job posting. The rest are busy playing with blocks on company time.
These are the real issues relative to labor and work that most workers do not understand.
1. Labor, skilled or unskilled has become a world wide commodity. That is what the H1B problem is all about, - as well as the rush to bring in unlimited and unskilled labor into the US. Businesses want to kill any labor competition by US citizens. US workers are not only competing with their fellow citizens, but also with the almost unlimited world labor market the Politicians have allowed into the United States.
2. Due to technology; - Skills mean in most cases, the ability to use, program or create in the latest "tool or skill set." This article has captured this correctly. Unless you keep up with the latest tool(s), you will be made obsolete quickly. As you get older your desire to keep up will always deminish.
3. Corporations (with some exceptions) have reduced labor and skills DEMAND, to "just in time" procurement thinking. This is the reason that HR Departments and Corporate Executives are alwasys behing the hiring curve based on project needs.
4. Senior Corporate Executies almost always work under Individual Employment contracts, Union Workers work under collective employment contracts, while the majority of US workers work under EMPLOYMENT AT WILL, hiring and firing laws. Under this concept you work at the whim not only of the employer, but also the manager that the employer has hired to manage a group of employees. EMPLOYMENT AT WILL, is the greatest LIE that has been sold and accepted by most workers. Unless covered by Affirmative Action Laws, most workers have no job protections at all.
And this is why every person who works MUST spend time and energy building an escape plan to get OUT of the employment ghetto and into the realm of being a small business owner/operator. Leave the "corporation" crib. Get a clue that you do not need them or their job, because you provide your own.
We need more illegal immigrants to fill the void. We don't have enough. sar
It is not a skills gap it is profit gap.
The employer can only hire a profitable employee or potentially profitable employee.
The employee will only work at a profitable job. A job that will pay him more than his current job or more than goverment benefits minus the hassel of actually working.
My time is comming suckers. I fix stuff right and get well paid for it. People keep offering me jobs after watching me do my thing. At first it was fun to chukle at the faces they would make when I told them my price. Nowdays I see terror on thier faces and it aint so funny no more. They know they need real tallent and are going to have to pay up. The idea that they cant afford the tallent that they must have is not a good thing to see.
So a bookeeper says you would be making as much as we pay our best man and myself. Then I show him a reciept for my time. I get that now and its not debatable.
In a high tech world you need real tallent more than ever. With no proffit margine you cant afford many mistakes. If you got tallent go job shopping you might be very happy you did!
Well stated. Your leverage is the ability to say NO. You have a very stable position of power which is not dependent on someone elses whim of hiring or firing you. In fact you are far, far better off NOT working for someone else other than directly for your customers. Anything else is just a parasitic suck.
These days Im restoring brake lathes at Independent brake lathes we have a web site check it out. They look and work bitchen and will keep on working. If this job goes away Im looking at oxidizer repair for over six figures plus commisions. Every year I add new real skills to my bag o tricks. Good luck finding my replacment.
Then companies should train people...