Bloomberg Businessweek has a fascinating story about the disconnect between the U.S. labor pool and U.S. labor needs. Here’s a piece of what we face:
The search for that needle crosses regions and industries, according to the Fed’s Beige Book survey of economic conditions released on July 27. Advertising and consulting companies in the Northeast say their inability to land qualified people is hurting growth. Truckers in the Midwest need drivers, and Chicago area manufacturers aren’t getting “appropriately skilled workers,” the report says. “The more this drags on, the more concerned we should all be getting that a lot of human capital is being lost,” says Daniel Aaronson, director of microeconomic research for the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.
A lack of mobility—particularly for homeowners who owe more than their dwellings are worth—keeps workers from going to where the jobs are, says Scott Paul, executive director of the Alliance for American Manufacturing. There’s also a bias against hiring the long-term jobless, he says. Longer term, companies face a dearth of machinists, lathe operators, and other skilled workers because vocational education has been “decimated” in parts of the U.S., and young people aren’t interested in manufacturing work.
