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Skills Don’t Pay the Bills

19 points by vimes656 14y ago

chrisbennet 14y ago
"The secret behind this skills gap is that it’s not a skills gap at all. I spoke to several other factory managers who also confessed that they had a hard time recruiting in-demand workers for $10-an-hour jobs. “It’s hard not to break out laughing,” says Mark Price, a labor economist at the Keystone Research Center, referring to manufacturers complaining about the shortage of skilled workers. “If there’s a skill shortage, there has to be rises in wages,” he says. “It’s basic economics.” After all, according to supply and demand, a shortage of workers with valuable skills should push wages up. Yet according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the number of skilled jobs has fallen and so have their wages." This is true in other fields as well. Take the "shortage" of Phd's. I believe the average fresh Phd is probably doing post doc work at a college for little pay.
thatcheclay 14y ago
Interesting points; I would be curious to take the economic argument a step further and understand the effects of traditionally unionized labor on the manufacturing industry. The economics of supply and demand driven wage efficiency falter in the face of unionized labor, and you have to wonder if the skills gap the author is talking about is really just people adjusting to a non unionized market for their skills.
- eli_gottlieb 14y ago
  I disagree. A well-run union, professional association, or "flexicurity" program can help keep the labor force up-to-date on the latest skills, raising productivity and wages.
hnwh 14y ago
"I spoke to several other factory managers who also confessed that they had a hard time recruiting in-demand workers for $10-an-hour jobs." No shit... not news.
- eli_gottlieb 14y ago
  It is news, because the "skills gap meme" has gotten deeply embedded in our entire culture and public consciousness. In everything from skilled manufacturing and trades to research science, heavy engineering and computer programming, there's a meme that we face a "skills gap": a working class that can't make good wages because it lacks skills, and employers who can't upgrade their productivity because they can't find skilled workers. Problem is, whenever you investigate it in almost any field, you find the explanation given here: that employers want lots of skills for very little money. Software is almost the only exception, and software salaries only started trending up in any real, serious, "shortage" sort of way a year or two ago as the latest wave of Silicon Valley start-up hiring hit. Hell, in software it took start-ups to raise salaries because the BigCos even had blatantly collusive anti-poaching agreements to hold salaries down. There's a salary gap, not a skills gap. There's a unicorn shortage, not a workhorse shortage (to blatantly rip off a noble Redditor of /r/programming).
izend 14y ago
" Running these machines requires a basic understanding of metallurgy, physics, chemistry, pneumatics, electrical wiring and computer code" For $10/hour? Sign me up...

19 points by vimes656 14y ago

"The secret behind this skills gap is that it’s not a skills gap at all. I spoke to several other factory managers who also confessed that they had a hard time recruiting in-demand workers for $10-an-hour jobs. “It’s hard not to break out laughing,” says Mark Price, a labor economist at the Keystone Research Center, referring to manufacturers complaining about the shortage of skilled workers. “If there’s a skill shortage, there has to be rises in wages,” he says. “It’s basic economics.” After all, according to supply and demand, a shortage of workers with valuable skills should push wages up. Yet according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the number of skilled jobs has fallen and so have their wages." This is true in other fields as well. Take the "shortage" of Phd's. I believe the average fresh Phd is probably doing post doc work at a college for little pay.

thatcheclay 14y ago

Interesting points; I would be curious to take the economic argument a step further and understand the effects of traditionally unionized labor on the manufacturing industry. The economics of supply and demand driven wage efficiency falter in the face of unionized labor, and you have to wonder if the skills gap the author is talking about is really just people adjusting to a non unionized market for their skills.

eli_gottlieb 14y ago
I disagree. A well-run union, professional association, or "flexicurity" program can help keep the labor force up-to-date on the latest skills, raising productivity and wages.

hnwh 14y ago

"I spoke to several other factory managers who also confessed that they had a hard time recruiting in-demand workers for $10-an-hour jobs." No shit... not news.

eli_gottlieb 14y ago
It is news, because the "skills gap meme" has gotten deeply embedded in our entire culture and public consciousness. In everything from skilled manufacturing and trades to research science, heavy engineering and computer programming, there's a meme that we face a "skills gap": a working class that can't make good wages because it lacks skills, and employers who can't upgrade their productivity because they can't find skilled workers. Problem is, whenever you investigate it in almost any field, you find the explanation given here: that employers want lots of skills for very little money. Software is almost the only exception, and software salaries only started trending up in any real, serious, "shortage" sort of way a year or two ago as the latest wave of Silicon Valley start-up hiring hit. Hell, in software it took start-ups to raise salaries because the BigCos even had blatantly collusive anti-poaching agreements to hold salaries down. There's a salary gap, not a skills gap. There's a unicorn shortage, not a workhorse shortage (to blatantly rip off a noble Redditor of /r/programming).

izend 14y ago

" Running these machines requires a basic understanding of metallurgy, physics, chemistry, pneumatics, electrical wiring and computer code" For $10/hour? Sign me up...