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Teamster Jeff

(1,598 posts)
Sat Mar 2, 2013, 01:51 PM Mar 2013

Study Demolishes the Myth That U.S. Workers Lack Skills

http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/14660/the_medias_skills_gap_thesis_is_a_myth/

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Over the last few years, the media has blared warnings that a “skills gap” among American workers is preventing full economic recovery.

According to this narrative, the problem is not an inadequate supply of family-sustaining jobs; it’s a workforce lacking in skills, training and education. The skills gap thesis has been spread by influential pundits like the New York Times' Thomas Friedman, top CEOs like Caterpillar's Doug Oberhelman, and PIMCO hedge fund owner Bill Gross, who declared, “Our labor force is too expensive and poorly educated for today's marketplace."
>
But in a study released this week called “The Skills Gap and Unemployment in Wisconsin: Separating Fact From Fiction,” urbanologist Marc Levine, a professor of history and economic development at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, applies a data-laden sledgehammer to this notion.
>
False: The skills of the workforce somehow dropped sharply between 2007 and 2009
False: There is a vast pool of high-skilled jobs waiting to be filled
False: Employers are trying in vain to attract skilled workers.
False: Understaffed employers must make do with the skilled workers they have.
False: New high-skill jobs have been created
False: Workers with advanced degrees are more highly sought-after.
False: The American job market will increasingly demand higher-skilled workers.
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Study Demolishes the Myth That U.S. Workers Lack Skills (Original Post) Teamster Jeff Mar 2013 OP
Well, we all know that rice paddy farmers in SE Asia have the skills Americans dont have DJ13 Mar 2013 #1
If only President O would read this article if not the underlying study... hedda_foil Mar 2013 #2
Doubt it Teamster Jeff Mar 2013 #3
Hell, even if Obama were driven by the purest of New Deal motives... hedda_foil Mar 2013 #4
of course it is garbage Skittles Mar 2013 #5
They THEY have conditioned the 'Murkan public to expect less wages underpants Mar 2013 #6
There is a two-fold reason . . . Brigid Mar 2013 #7

hedda_foil

(16,368 posts)
2. If only President O would read this article if not the underlying study...
Sat Mar 2, 2013, 02:26 PM
Mar 2013

If only that would make a difference.

hedda_foil

(16,368 posts)
4. Hell, even if Obama were driven by the purest of New Deal motives...
Sat Mar 2, 2013, 02:39 PM
Mar 2013

Even if he was so concerned about this study that he demanded that senior staff look into it, the result would undoubtedly debunk the study... if not in Wisconsin, where Walker might take the heat, then nationally. The proverbial die has been cast along with the intentional unemployment of most skilled workers, tool and die workers included.

underpants

(182,281 posts)
6. They THEY have conditioned the 'Murkan public to expect less wages
Sat Mar 2, 2013, 06:12 PM
Mar 2013

because we are told repeatedly that we lack skills and that our education system is broken. It is a two-fold approach: less wages and busting the teachers unions.

Brigid

(17,621 posts)
7. There is a two-fold reason . . .
Sat Mar 2, 2013, 06:44 PM
Mar 2013

For the continued sluggish job growth in the country:

The so-called "job creators" are hoarding their cash overseas, and they do not want to invest in any job training whatsoever.

It isn't rocket science; it's just the greed of the robber class.

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