2/29: Skilled-labor shortage a crisis
Moderated by Rick Badie
Wanted: Blue-collar workers. Machinists, toolmakers and such. As the manufacturing industry rises tepidly, a skilled-labor shortage has been declared a regional crisis.
Today, an economics expert addresses the state’s response to the issue while a Kennesaw factory owner experiencing an increase in orders wants to hire but finds talent scarce.
What do you think?
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28 comments Add your comment
Mary Ellen
February 28th, 2012
6:55 pm
Not EVERYONE needs to or should go to college. Those who have an interest in a career that does not require a college degree are often ignored because schools measure their success by how many graduates go on to college. Those who choose a technical career should be encouraged (and respected!) just as much as college-bound students, since these jobs are ESSENTIAL for a balanced economy, and in many cases, technical careers PAY BETTER than academically-based careers. I’ve seen plenty of PhD’s who don’t make squat and who don’t even have a clue how to check the oil in their cars, so where would they be without their mechanics, who sometimes make better money than the PhD!?
Hillbilly D
February 28th, 2012
7:21 pm
There was a time when that factory owner would have hired people and trained them, letting them work their way up the ladder. Everybody expects instant gratification, now, including factory owners..
Bernie
February 28th, 2012
7:29 pm
Not only do we have a shortage of skilled workers. There is also, a real crisis of politicians who like playng doctor too! They seem to know more about women’s health issues than the women themselves.
How ironic is that?
Rasheeda
February 28th, 2012
9:26 pm
This seems impossible, given the large number of Vo-Tech graduates and the still high unemployment rate. Maybe it’s time for businesses and/or the State Labor Department to do some heavy duty recruiting in high schools to let the kids know about these career opportunities.
Freedom Lover
February 28th, 2012
9:53 pm
This is what happens when government intervenes in the economy. It wasn’t enough to let people decide for themselves what they wanted out of life. The government had to step in, print money out of thin air, back student loans with the future of taxpayer’s earnings, and improperly encourage everyone to go to college while at the same time racking up debt for themselves and huge loan profits for the government’s friends in the banking industry. Yes folks, that’s exactly what happened. Additionally, the enless supply of available funds (certainly way more than would be available in a sound economy based on real savings and sound currency), encouraged and allowed prices for college to go through the roof. Sound familiar? The same thing happened when idiots like Bush and clowns like Frank and others encouraged everyone to own a home and put up taxpayer monies to back wreckless loans to the unqualified.
There is a system of economics that balances the future will of the consumer (measured by savings rates) with the needs of the entrepreneur (when he is looking for signals on investments, etc.) and that system is the free market. There is no Federal Reserve in a free market, no bailouts, no government loan guarantees, no printing of worthless money, no social maniupulation through price fixing (interest rates), or tax codes (savings deductions for college savings), or anything of the sort. In a free market, people and businesses make decisions based on market signals, and while there is no nirvana, there are not bubbles in housing and student loans and massive dearths of skilled labor to meet manufacturing and production needs.
It is high time to get the government OUT of the economy so it can run like the beautiful masterpiece that it is.
Hillbilly D
February 28th, 2012
10:00 pm
We’ve had panics/depressions/recessions, every few years, dating back to the 1700’s. They’re nothing new.
Chris Salzmann
February 28th, 2012
10:18 pm
Hey Freedom Lover: You want the government out of the economy and out of your life, then move to Somalia. The law of the jungle works there and I hear it works very well.
Chris Salzmann
February 28th, 2012
10:26 pm
Here’s another one, 30 of our largest corporations paid more to lobbyists than they paid in taxes. These include companies like GE, Wells Fargo, Fed-Ex, Corning, Dupont, Boing, Pepsico, etc. In fact, over the last decade, GE paid taxes at an effective rate of 2.6%.
These are FACTS. And you still buy into the myth that corporations are too highly taxed and their taxes should be reduced???
lynnbo
February 28th, 2012
10:51 pm
After decades of illegal workers willing to work for lower money while receiving welfare, what do you expect to happen……..we have lost generations of people who would have learned a skill from their dad or mentor. Instead millions of Americans where displaced and this will have generational consequences. Why train for a skill, our open borders will just let your job be taken by an unethical worker who will work for less. Workers have no incentive to train in trades only to be loose later.
SAWB
February 29th, 2012
12:11 am
A few years ago the company I worked for relocated leaving several hundred folks out of work. A number of them went to the local Technical College to be “re-trained”. Now, keep in mind these were experienced manufacturing employees who needed maybe some math and computer courses to prepare them for more high tech manufacturing jobs. However, they were advised and steered into Business Management, Hospitality and Construction degree programs. These folks spent the next two or three years getting an associate degree and now are unable to find a job as they compete with candidates who hold bachelor degrees.
The Technical College system is focused on pumping up and maintaining high enrollment to get state funds instead of doing individual career focused advisement. There is also a disconnect between what we are training people for and the jobs that are available. The Department of Labor, Chamber of Commerce and Department of Adult Education need to do a much better job of coordinating the re-training of the unemployed. Technical Colleges should be held accountable for actual job placement and not just enrollment.
Sheshe
February 29th, 2012
1:02 am
@ Mary Ellen—You’ve hit the nail on the head!!! I’ve been voicing this same sentiment way before the economy tanked, but common sense (no, make that GOOD sense) is no longer used in this dumbed-down nation of educated fools we have in today’s society.
Sheshe
February 29th, 2012
1:25 am
@ Freedom Lover—Your comments, like Mary Ellen’s, are very well stated also. Yet, as we can read, some folks just don’t get it. Those of us who’ve lived during the time of economic “checks and balances” without the government having a hand (or giving a handout) in everything had premonitons about where our nation was headed once we contiued to see these things happening. Futhermore, no need to blame one President or the other. It takes more than one person to run the show. Greed and entitlement has destroyed this nation. (And this is from a female Black American, so don’t get it twisted!)
Unemployed
February 29th, 2012
4:44 am
I sure wish that factory owners would allow the unemployed to train to work these jobs!
I would be the first one in line if these type jobs, or an apprenticeship, was advertised. Sadly, all the ads require already experienced workers and there seem to be NO entry level jobs (unless you count all the CraigsList scams).
For the disabled out of work, part of the reason why the disabled are forced into applying for disability (and I may have to join those sad ranks) is because employers do not trust the disabled enough to train them for a job.
Vladimir Putin was right – America wants servants, not allies, and that mentality absolutely shows in the arrogance of hiring managers and HR personnel who look down upon the downtrodden and do not consider the long-term unemployed for hire. Grr.
Lib in Cobb
February 29th, 2012
5:21 am
President Obama has stressed the importance of post high school education/training, the GOP has ridiculed him for this idea, claiming he is a “snob”. In the job market of today everyone needs training/education post high school, no longer is a high school diploma or a GED adequate. A GED is nothing more than a certificate which shows that a person has the very basic knowledge of a high school graduate.
GA is woefully behind the education curve, regularly ranking at or near the bottom in several criteria.
High School Graduation rate: Overall 54% the very lowest in the US. I will also remind all who read this post, that GA is run by the GOP. We Liberal Democrats who support education have and do show much better results in states like MA.
DeborahinAthens
February 29th, 2012
7:09 am
Back when Lockheed was still Bell Helicopter(I think it was Bell) my dad applied for a job. He had to use a mail order degree program (no Internet!) to get his aeronautical mechanics degree. I still have some of the little blue books filled with mathmatical equations. He couldn’t afford to go to college, which was sad, because he was one of the most intelligent people I have ever known. He worked at Lockheed his whole life–he died there when he was fifty-two. He worked on the C130s, as well as a few undercover planes that never saw the light of day like the Hummingbird. Not everyone should go to college, but our students, if they want to have manufacturing jobs should be able to learn the skills in technical schools. We have made the mistake of telling our little darlings they need to get degrees in the fine arts, which are “easy”, but which do nothing to prepare them for the real world. No one wants to get dirty, work hard, sweat…and when you’re on the assembly line, you can’t answer your cell phone. OMG!
Corey
February 29th, 2012
8:21 am
“We have to out educate, out innovate and out produce our competitors in order to win the future”, said President Obama. Sarah Palin responded, “WTF?” With roughly fifty per cent of Americans agreeing with Ms. Palin, we’ve go some difficult days ahead.
barbyk
February 29th, 2012
8:42 am
we cant train or educate – our schools are babysitters for illegals . teachers need to be able to teach english and math (in english) and have students who have families working to educate at home – including the wlefare moms.
sadly, we are slowly destroying our wonderful southern environment
barbyk
February 29th, 2012
8:47 am
hopefully, wyou will all go and sit in a class… (I have) kids dont care about learning ……that cant be failed……we are oppressing these illegals and wlefare babies… then why can aisans immigrate and go to the top of their classes. parents !!!!!
this is about making education a privlledge and not have it dumbed down for the folks who cant be bothered with their role as paretn(S) – maybe charge for undocumented folks and require participAtion from parents..
jim
February 29th, 2012
9:11 am
everyone does not need to go to college or technical school.
who does the construction jobs? they start as a laborer, or apprentice and attend their craft school as they learn on job.
who is going to raise our fruits, vegetable, meat and process it prior to delivery to the store?
who is going to drive the delivery truck, stock it in the store and run the checkout?
who is going to build our homes and cut our grass?
WTF?
February 29th, 2012
9:21 am
@Corey: With roughly fifty per cent of Americans agreeing with Ms. Palin, we’ve go some difficult days ahead.
….and the other 50% voted for Obama. That “Hope” & “Change” is working out great, eh? Perhaps this time you should actually turn on ‘your’ brain and elect someone with a brain.
A dumbed down parent
February 29th, 2012
9:29 am
@Lib in Cobb: “We Liberal Democrats who support education have and do show much better results in states like MA.”
Should I point out that GA also has one of the highest percentages of minority students who would rather shoot basketballs (or fellow shoppers to get a pair of the new Nikes) than ‘be edgamacated’ like whitey. Yet somehow the northern districts of Atlanta, very non-minority and very non-Democrat, are receiving National recognition for their students. You may want to actually use your brain before making such politically motivated and stupid comments.
Corey
February 29th, 2012
9:58 am
@A dumbed down parent
February 29th, 2012
9:29 am
Your ignorance, bigotry and vile speaks volumes.
buttpaste
February 29th, 2012
12:21 pm
I guess all that talk about being a snob for getting a trade sounds even more ignorant now… Anti-Intellectual talk and confusion on history(JFK’s speech intentions) are enough to make me wonder why in the h/e/l/l do people even care about the GOP anymore… Oh that’s right they scare the s/h/i/t out of people and make them forget their common sense…
JV
February 29th, 2012
12:52 pm
Say what? Are none of these Geniuses aware that there are millions of military veterans that already have these technical skills? Veterans of the US Armed Forces are a deep font of talent, including job skills that are sorely needed by private employers in many industries.
In addition to their broad range of technical skills, veterans have a well-deserved reputation for soft skills and admirable qualities that are just as important: leadership, team player skills, hard work, reliability and many more.
Hire a vet!
Hillbilly D
February 29th, 2012
3:23 pm
The law of the jungle works there
The “law of the jungle” works well, if you’re a lion or a tiger, etc. If you’re an antelope, wildebeest, etc, it probably doesn’t work so well. There are whole lot more antelopes and wildebeests than there are lions and tigers. Even if most of those animals don’t actually live in the jungle, I think y’all get my drift. I’m guessing everybody on this blog falls into the antelope, etc, category; me included.
lynnbo
February 29th, 2012
6:01 pm
The only industry that America has excelled is looting our tax dollars and leaving a large debt.
Didn’t take a college education to do that, just lie and get elected.
Corey
February 29th, 2012
6:49 pm
@WTF?
February 29th, 2012
9:21 am
The Nasdaq composite index briefly broke through 3,000 on Wednesday for the first time since the collapse in dot-com stocks more than a decade ago. Stocks ended lower, but it was still the best February on Wall Street in 14 years.
The milestone for the Nasdaq, heavy with technology stocks, came a day after the Dow Jones industrial average closed above 13,000 for the first time since May 2008
WTF, if you only had a brain…
Hillbilly D
February 29th, 2012
8:46 pm
Sounds like the bubble is fixin’ to pop at the old stock market casino, again.