General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Rural Americans don't want job training [View all]OhioBlue
(5,126 posts)And... a lot of them did take retraining courses. Setting up and funneling people through retraining programs is easy and I think lots of politicians gave themselves gold stars for it. Making sure people have the aptitude for those professions and job placement is harder. I saw lots of people go through the retraining programs because the federal funds would continue their unemployment if they enrolled by a certain date. It wasn't always the best fit, the employees didn't always have the intention of following up in the career they were training in and some dropped out because they saw an opportunity open up for employment with decent wages and benefits. There were success stories too - I remember some retrained for HVAC or construction and were placed with employers but I don't know what happened after the crash in '08.
Some didn't retrain through a program and have settled for other factory jobs that pay less, lost their seniority or took service jobs.
When a large number of jobs are lost in an industry that provides livable wages it is hard to adjust. Some will retrain, some will move, some will find similar jobs, some will settle for 1 or 2 lower paid jobs, some will hold out hope for comparative jobs to come back.