Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Young, gifted and slack {youth unemployment}
The Economist ^ | 14 Nov 2012 | Domnic Barton

Posted on 12/05/2012 10:50:29 PM PST by Cronos

One of the biggest problems facing the world in 2013 is the prolonged—and seemingly intractable—crisis of youth unemployment. Put simply, too many young people lack employable skills in a world that has too few skilled workers. The result is that in parts of the Middle East and north Africa youth unemployment remains stuck at around 25%; in Spain and South Africa about half of young would-be workers are unemployed; globally around 75m people aged 15 to 24 are jobless, and the International Labour Organisation expects this dismaying unemployment rate of almost 13% to rise.

Clearly, this is a critical business issue. In a recent McKinsey survey of more than 4,500 young people, 2,700 employers and 900 education providers across America, Brazil, Britain, Germany, India, Mexico, Morocco, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, some 40% of employers reported that they struggle to fill entry-level jobs because the candidates have inadequate skills. Almost 45% of young people said that their current jobs were not related to their studies, and of these more than half view the jobs as interim and are looking to leave. Without a remedy for this mismatch of demand and supply, we forecast that by 2020 there will be a global shortfall of 85m high- and middle-skill workers for the labour market.

But this business issue is a political issue, too. If young people who have played by society’s rules—working hard, for example, to graduate from school and university—find fewer and fewer opportunities to secure decent jobs and the sense of respect that comes with them, society will have to be prepared for outbreaks of anger or even violence.

Among the myriad factors contributing to this market failure, one stands out: a profound disconnect between the perceptions variously held by employers, education-providers and the young themselves.

(Excerpt) Read more at economist.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society
KEYWORDS:
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-28 next last
Interesting article about the disconnect which says
In our survey, nearly 70% of employers blamed inadequate training for the shortfall in skilled workers, yet 70% of education providers believe they suitably prepare graduates for the jobs market. Similarly, employers complain that less than half of the young whom they hire have adequate problem-solving skills, yet nearly two-thirds of the young believe that they do have such skills. The situation is such that nearly 60% of young people around the world say they would pay more for an education that would improve the likelihood of securing an attractive job; and 70% of employers say they would pay more for the right talent, if only they could find it.

1 posted on 12/05/2012 10:50:34 PM PST by Cronos
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: Cronos
nearly 60% of young people around the world say they would pay more for an education that would improve the likelihood of securing an attractive job; and 70% of employers say they would pay more for the right talent,

What do they call that? A market? I'm old, it's late. I must be crazy.

/johnny

2 posted on 12/05/2012 10:56:08 PM PST by JRandomFreeper (Gone Galt)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Cronos

That’s the problem, by the time these young people are old enough to be polled and asked whether they would pay more for an education it’s too late.

Their education started when they were 5 years old, when their parents and teachers are making their educational decisions for them ... kids can’t even decide what will benefit them later on even when they’re 18 an picking a college major!

Personally I think we need to stop teaching calculus and trigonometry in middle & high school, in favor of statistics. It’s got so many practical applications in business, finance, politics, science, tech, marketing, sales — it’s key to so many of the new kinds of jobs employers are looking to fill, across tons of different kinds of industries.


3 posted on 12/05/2012 11:05:04 PM PST by fours
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Cronos

What is needed is obvious: more government taxation and regulation of business, more taxation of investment profits, more political correctness in education, lower educational standards, total denigration of capitalism and business in education and media, etc.

You know, everything Americans voted for.


4 posted on 12/05/2012 11:08:14 PM PST by Jeff Chandler (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpAOwJvTOio)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Cronos

self-serving Obama type rhetoric.

reality, during the Obama era,
college grads are overqualified,
not underqualified


5 posted on 12/05/2012 11:41:22 PM PST by RockyTx
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Cronos

“Similarly, employers complain that less than half of the young whom they hire have adequate problem-solving skills, yet nearly two-thirds of the young believe that they do have such skills.”

They don’t have such skills, nor do they really know what critical thinking is. They believe that critical thinking is to apply their Marxist-derived dialectics to any problem in order to arrive at the proper solution, since that is what they’ve been taught. Public schools are designed to suppress critical thinking, not encourage it, in order to churn out compliant drones for the state.


6 posted on 12/06/2012 12:37:55 AM PST by Boogieman
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: fours

It’s pointless to teach any of that to kids who haven’t even learned the basics of logic and problem solving. However, we can’t teach them those things, because then they might reject the political propaganda we want to force feed them.


7 posted on 12/06/2012 12:40:20 AM PST by Boogieman
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Cronos
lack employable skills

Since liberals control our schools they're wholly to blame for youth unemployment. There are only so many hours in a school day. If those are spent teaching pablum and indoctrination then they're wasted and can never be recovered.

8 posted on 12/06/2012 12:54:30 AM PST by 1010RD (First, Do No Harm)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Boogieman

It’s worse than that. They’ve got all the ego of a professional sprots star and none of the skills. We literally must reeducate an entire generation.

Who controls the school systems in America?


9 posted on 12/06/2012 1:00:23 AM PST by 1010RD (First, Do No Harm)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: RockyTx

no, overqualified in doing nothing.


10 posted on 12/06/2012 1:52:29 AM PST by Cronos (**Marriage is about commitment, cohabitation is about convenience.**)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: Cronos
First thing you must have at a very young age (4-5) is a desire on the part of the parents is for their child to have a good education.IF Mama and Papa( where is he, who was he) don't care about their children being educated, the child sure as hell won't care.
11 posted on 12/06/2012 2:07:03 AM PST by BooBoo1000 (Some times I wake up grumpy,,, other times I just let her sleep.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

ping for later


12 posted on 12/06/2012 2:08:12 AM PST by Drew68
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Jeff Chandler

I am seeing hard Leftists completely exultant that we are getting exactly that. The lessons of 20th Century Statism and economics mean nothing to them, they are completely ignorant of the history, arrogantly so.


13 posted on 12/06/2012 2:35:37 AM PST by FreedomPoster (Islam delenda est)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: Cronos

Easy:

1) TAKE AWAY THEIR DAMN FRIGGIN’ PHONES.

2) SHUT DOWN TEXTING.

3) MAKE ‘EM DO CHORES.


14 posted on 12/06/2012 2:36:56 AM PST by LiveFreeOrDie2001
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: JRandomFreeper

I’d call it grounds for taxpayers who are footing the educational bill to be dissatisfied with the product they’re buying—not ready to shell out more.


15 posted on 12/06/2012 2:39:46 AM PST by 9YearLurker
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: JRandomFreeper

The problem today (at least in the US) is that a young person investing time and effort in learning skills that are in demand is simply being undercut by government collusion with business to ensure that they will never have to pay that person a “market rate”. Companies circumvent the market by either importing Asian coolies (with a fabricated shortage) or sending the work to Asia; in the end you have a skilled young American with no job prospects. This started with manufacturing, then ravaged the tech sector, more recently the financial services industry, and now is hitting accounting and the medical field. Both parties are quite OK with this.

I know 2 American tech people who are in their 50s; one is working as a part-time crossing guard and the other works as a TSA employee at Liberty Airport. The former has a family; I’ll bet his children won’t when they remember this dark time in their childhoods. Americans have stopped breeding for the same reasons as Europeans: they have no confidence they will be able to provide for a family. The ripples can be seen in a housing market that won’t recover for decades and unfettered immigration to keep classrooms & tenements full.


16 posted on 12/06/2012 2:59:44 AM PST by kearnyirish2 (Affirmative action is economic war against white males (and therefore white families).)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: LiveFreeOrDie2001

Most American youth face reality when they get a car (for those that still can); when I was younger the cost of the car was the big deal, while now just keeping gas in it opens their eyes.

Our young people (those with any drive) will quickly see that President Foodstamps could never replace the standard of living their parents enjoyed; only real economic opportunity will.


17 posted on 12/06/2012 3:05:51 AM PST by kearnyirish2 (Affirmative action is economic war against white males (and therefore white families).)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: Cronos

If I told you my hourly rate of pay when I retired in 1999 as a C.N.C. operator, you probably wouldn’t believe me. My employer required that I be certified at a local Jr. college, which they paid for.

Caution, if you aren’t “good” at math, don’t bother because it is sort of math intensive.

C.N.C. is Computer Numerical Control.


18 posted on 12/06/2012 3:17:45 AM PST by Graybeard58 (What G.O.P.e. candidate is in store for us in 2016?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Cronos

This is what happens when you substitute indoctrination and self esteem for education.


19 posted on 12/06/2012 3:22:31 AM PST by circlecity
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 1010RD
Since liberals control our schools they're wholly to blame for youth unemployment. There are only so many hours in a school day. If those are spent teaching pablum and indoctrination then they're wasted and can never be recovered.

Bingo. Government run schools enforce the idea of subservience to "superiors" and dependence on government. Add in a good dollop of marxism with its group-think and you create a generation who can't think on their own, are afraid to strike out in new directions, and who are always seeking approval from the "group".

20 posted on 12/06/2012 5:25:59 AM PST by Flick Lives (We're going to be just like the old Soviet Union, but with free cell phones!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-28 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson