Trump Should Worry About U.S. Unskilled Labor: Official
Source: Newsweek Magazine
TRUMP SHOULD WORRY ABOUT U.S. UNSKILLED LABOR AND STOP BLAMING MEXICO FOR JOB LOSSES, OFFICIAL SAYS
BY ROBERT VALENCIA ON 12/10/17 AT 11:47 AM
President Donald Trump has repeatedly lambasted the North American Free Trade Agreement—and he did so again during a Florida rally on Friday evening, calling the trade bloc "disastrous." But Mexico’s Secretary of Tourism Enrique de la Madrid Cordero does not share the president's views.
He said in an interview with Newsweek that the Trump administration should address the truth about the U.S. workforce's inability to fill high-skill posts, rather than blaming Mexico and NAFTA for job losses.
“There are six million posts [across fields] in the U.S. that have not been occupied by Americans because they may not have the required skills, so businesses can’t employ them—and there are 11 million jobs in the U.S. that depend on trade with Mexico and Canada," he said. "So, the truth is that there are more jobs generated by the trade bloc. So why are we concerned about jobs that have gone [to other countries] when the U.S. hasn’t been able to fill those positions due to unskilled labor? An effort to provide skills to the workforce must be made because the problem is not outside [of the U.S.]”
A report by the Labor Department revealed the creation of 6.2 million jobs in June, but CNN Money reported in August that employers couldn't find "skilled and available workers" to fill many of these positions. These jobs were available in industries such as manufacturing, construction, mining, health and education services, according to CNN Money.
Read more: http://www.newsweek.com/trumps-economic-policies-hurt-us-more-mexican-labor-official-says-741868
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Our schools should be educating children for the sake of education, but not with the idea that they are America's future workers. Some will be, of course, we'll still need scientists, engineers, doctors, lawyers, etc. But most unskilled jobs will be performed by robots in the future and we should prepare our children for the fact there may not be jobs for them when they're adults. Once the robots have been designed and built, America will have no need for humans to do that work in the future. How are we going to handle this radical change in our economy and lifestyle? How are Americans going to live their lives when future employment is not part of the picture? We should be discussing these questions calmly now, before it turns into a violent revolution later.
I just retired this year, but my entire career has been in the field of printing. Automation has been taking over that industry even as the companies are going out of business. The more profitable companies have been saved temporarily by making big investiments or merging with larger companies, much like every other industry so (it seems.) The marginally profitable printing companies are already closing or they will soon. Any company that hasn't invested in new digital equipment is so far behind the 8-ball that they'll never catch up.
My former company is still hanging in there because they jumped into the digital age rather early, and invested in all new digital equipment. It's not entirely automated but the workforce was slowly laid off while major money was being invested. They went from about 150 employees down to a core of 50 or 60 full-timers. Productivity increased substantially with the new equipment, profits soared, people lost their jobs and many left the printing industry altogether. Some will be lucky enough (like me) to retire with a good 401K pension.
