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Hi All,
For those who are still wondering where are the jobs and when will they be here I have news. The jobs are here already, you, on the other hand, may not have the skill sets required to get them. If you’re looking for your old job back you are in trouble. It just isn’t likely to happen.
Those construction related jobs? Gone for the foreseeable future. Likely not back in the old way for a long time, if ever. New construction jobs using green technologies and methods will replace the old jobs and require new skills and new thought processes. If you aren’t on top of that shift, you could be hurting for a long, long time.
What we have in this country is a fundamental mismatch between skill sets and job needs. We have jobs going wanting and people without jobs in large numbers. Ife as you knew it has changed and party in power will have no bearing. The jobs are created by the market place and if they can’t be filled here they will move to wherever the talent pool to fill them is available. It isn’t only price that is driving jobs off shore.
Companies are folding because they can’t compete. This is partly because they don’t have the right products (which are created by employees with the right skills) and partly because they can’t get financing. Money is available but it is looking for projects that have a high probability of success. Expansion of the most profitable buggy whip makers just isn’t what the smart money is looking for. Expansion or additional R&D in battery companies that will support electric cars is getting funded. If you car trying to reinvent the wheel, it will be hard. If you are producing a more efficient wheel you can probably get the capital you need.
Housing was (and remains) a major issue. And it will take years for it to play out. Yet it would be faster if jobs recovered. Since that isn’t a cyclical problem but rather a structural problem. Only education of the work force, inactive and those still in school into the areas that have jobs waiting for them will solve the jobless structural issues and ultimately spur a recovery. Throwing money at the “problem” won’t help solve it. Funding fundamental change in the educational and job training offerings will help but it will take time. If we do the right things the problem will be solved in less than 10 years time. If we do the wrong things this problem could be around for decades and it could become so severe as to endanger this country’s position as a world leader. China will replace the USA as the largest economy on this planet by 2030. When that happens, what will be the likelihood of our being able to fund our deficit/debt? Will we become the next Greece?
Can it happen, really? Britain was the largest, most powerful empire on earth at one time with interests reaching to the tip of Africa and into New Zealand and Australia as well as North America. Today it is enacting draconian budget cuts just to remain viable at home. Most of Europe is in the same boat. Italy (Roman Empire) once ruled the world. Now where do they stand? France, Spain and even Germany, once powerful leaders of the world, today are struggling to keep their economies afloat. What makes the United States different? It what way are we immune?
Education had always been our strong suit. People from around the globe sent their brightest and best to University in The United States. In the interest of diversity we made space for them in our classrooms and they studied and worked very hard to learn all they could. Then they took what they had learned and returned home. Now they are using that education to help their people climb up the economic ladder.
It isn’t about fairness or anything of the sort. It is about hard work. The United States in unique in all the history of the world. Mr. Lincoln asked if a nation so conceived and so dedicated could long endure. We need to buckle down and really start working hard if we are not to become a footnote in history as the first nation so conceived and so dedicated… to fail to endure.
The economy is what it is. You can participate in the worst of it or the best. The choice is yours. The outcome is your fault either way.
