Austin, Texas: A recent article in the Wall Street Journal shows that many American companies are willing to hire, but the lack of qualified job skills is lacking.
The article states that though companies may be able to get their unskilled work done by shifting around existing staff or using temps, a shortage of skilled workers is harder to finesse. A Deloitte study found that 74% of manufacturers said a shortage of skilled production workers had a “significant negative impact” on either their productivity or expansion plans.
“There’s a tremendous shortage of skilled workers,” said Craig Giffi, a vice chairman of the consulting firm Deloitte. A recent survey it did found that 83% of manufacturers reported a moderate or severe shortage of skilled production workers to hire.
Another example cited in the article was AAR Corp., a Chicago-based aviation-parts manufacturer, which has 600 job openings, mostly for skilled trade jobs like welders and maintenance mechanics. Chief Executive David Storch said the shortage of workers has forced the company to pass up business and delay some manufacturing work. He said the company would like to start a third shift at its Indianapolis aircraft maintenance facility but has been unable to do so because of worker shortages.
“It’s a little bit frustrating to sit around and talk about the ability to grow your business if you could only hire skilled people,” Mr. Storch said.
“At a 9% unemployment rate, it would seem that people would go back to trade or technical skills to learn the skills that are needed in getting hired”, says Robert Piller, President of BuyUSPromos.com. “Talk to the human resource directors of major employers in your area to see what type of skill sets they are looking for, and go back to school, if need be. Community colleges are an excellent place to start, as are technical schools and even online. Going back to school may seem overwhelming, at first to some people, but the new skills can help open doors that might previously have been closed.”
“In every recovery you hear about the mismatch of skills to available jobs, but this time around it seems particularly pernicious,” said Dana Saporta, an economist with Credit Suisse, She estimates the skills mismatch and similar so-called structural issues add 1.5 percentage points to the unemployment rate.
Let’s sharpen our job skills and go after the jobs are are being created. As many jobs, previously considered “blue collar” open up due to retirement and attrition, the laws of supply and demand should mean more jobs for those willing to go outside their comfort zones a little bit.
Here’s to a growing US economy and jobs market.