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A good reply. I personally believe we can be competitive enough to get some of these jobs back and to create even more. We may have to change that expectation of career stability to do so, but it is worth the effort. I am in law, one of the stability havens you mentioned, and I can assure you that with only a few exceptions, lawyers have to change jobs and even fields with a frequency that matches or exceeds that seen in science and engineering. I have several undergraduate classmate from Clemson who are engineers and most have the same employer they had in 1990 when they entered the job market. None of my classmates from Duke Law can say the same. (In the interest of full disclosure, probably 40% of my Clemson engineer friends have changed jobs one to several times, but the corresponding percentage for law school is close to 100%)

What is your idea of a solution to the training deficit in the U.S.?

We have to be careful not to blur the distinction between changing jobs and being forced, against one's will, to change careers. Voluntary job changes happen all the time, and there is usually a positive result in doing so, if it is voluntary (although not always, sometimes things don't work out when it looked like they might). I think what discourages a lot of young people today from considering a technical career is the perception that their time and effort will be wasted. These are not easy fields to master and one must be motivated to learn as well as have some innate ability. If they perceive that they take four or six or eight years to get a decent education, then be forced to drive a truck or work at WalMart or Mac's to make ends meet when their job is outsourced, it tends to be discouraging. There are some (here on FR and elsewhere) who cheer such outcomes. "Good for them", they say, or, "the market told you where you should be, so suck it up", or, "screw 'em, if they can't adapt". But that is one attitude we should change. Losing the talents and abilities of good people is not a positive outcome, either for them, business, or the country.