Boomers are going to be retiring in droves soon.
Unemployment is sitting @ 4.8 %.
Where are these workers going to be coming from ?
Nobody really has this answer.
It's all supply and demand. If the demand is there (and the compensation is there), more Americans will stop majoring in things like Hotel Management if they think its worth their while (for the amount of effort they need to expend). Many kids have been told that CS/IT jobs will be outsourced, so they think there is no future in it. Meanwhile, we import the talent instead of nurturing our own, so that perception is reinforced by reality. These kids are not dumb--they want to maximize gain while minimizing effort. You can call it laziness, but it is also shrewd.
We have 300+M people in this country. It is crowded ane expensive enough where I live. Its very hard for me to understand why we need more people--its a vicious circle.
That might be an answer but it's not THE answer.
Bodies are needed right now. If you put everyone of those
4.8 percent to work right now (you can't. some of the enemployed are unemployable, we'll never have 0% unemploymnet), you still will need more bodies.
Even more bodies, in all sectors, will be needed when the boomers retire.
Our kids ain't having the number of kids like we had kids, and we didn't have the number of kids like out folks had.
300 million crowded ? The entire population of the world can fit in Texas, comfortably.
My construction buddies are shot to doll rags. They've been barrelling for the last 8-10 years. They are worn out.
But it's not stopping. The O'Hare airport expansion is firing up. There aint going to be enough bodies.
They don't have enough bodies in the gulf for hurricane clean-up.
I wish your answer was THE answer, but it aint.
Frankly, IT and engineering jobs are overrated and overpaid. So you can program in C. So you can crunch numbers for structural fatigue. So?
I know "engineers" that do nothing but give presentations a few times a week, and the expect 70-90 large a year...they have the education, or so they say. Or the same job can be H1B'd to Raul, he only expects 30 large for sitting on his duff, playing with Windows and posting to FR between presentations.
When your plumbing freezes in the middle of the night and blows your pipes to pieces, who do you call? A plumber, he'll charge whatever he darn well pleases and you'll be happy to pay so you don't have to crawl around in the freezing water and sewage yourself. Unfortunately, most "professional" jobs aren't this critical, I can do without my latest update to windows for much longer than I can do without water.
And yes, I'm an electronic engineer.