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600,000 manufacturing jobs go unfilled due to applicants lack of 'soft skills'
American Thinker ^ | 10/01/2012 | Rick Moran

Posted on 10/01/2012 8:32:58 AM PDT by SeekAndFind

It isn't just high tech positions in American manufacturing that aren't being filled. The consultant company Deloitte surveyed the industry and found 600,000 perfectly good jobs going unfilled because of a lack of "soft skills."

What are soft skills?

Wall Street Journal:

At a recent dinner in Washington, D.C., with representatives from major American manufacturing companies, I listened as the talk turned to how hard it is to find qualified applicants for jobs.

"What exactly are the skills you can't find?" I asked, imagining that openings for high-tech positions went begging because, as we hear so often, the training of the U.S. workforce doesn't match up well with current corporate needs.

One of the representatives looked sheepishly around the room and responded: "To be perfectly honest . . . we have a hard time finding people who can pass the drug test." Several other reps gave a knowing nod. Applicants were often so underqualified, they said, that simply finding someone who could properly answer the telephone was sometimes a challenge.

[...]

American manufacturing has become more advanced, we're told, and requires computer aptitude, intricate problem solving, and greater dexterity with complex tasks. Surely if Americans were getting STEM education, they would have the skills they need to get jobs in our modern, high-tech economy.

But considerable evidence suggests that many employers would be happy just to find job applicants who have the sort of "soft" skills that used to be almost taken for granted. In the Manpower Group's 2012 Talent Shortage Survey, nearly 20% of employers cited a lack of soft skills as a key reason they couldn't hire needed employees. "Interpersonal skills and enthusiasm/motivation" were among the most commonly identified soft skills that employers found lacking.

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


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: drugs; jobs; manufacturing; skills; softskills; warondrugs; wod; wodlist; wosd
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To: arrogantsob

Thanks. After reading this, I’ll put my English excellence certification on my resume.


81 posted on 10/01/2012 9:58:38 AM PDT by bicyclerepair ( REPLACE D-W-S ! http://www.karenforcongress.com)
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To: SeekAndFind

in udder wurds kids are graduated fer occasionally showin up.


82 posted on 10/01/2012 9:59:29 AM PDT by I want the USA back (What? the American school system is a failure?)
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To: SeekAndFind

Does that come with a free I-Phone?


83 posted on 10/01/2012 9:59:37 AM PDT by Portcall24
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To: factoryrat
I find HR departments the biggest impediment to getting work. And getting qualified workers.
84 posted on 10/01/2012 10:00:16 AM PDT by Nuc 1.1 (Nuc 1 Liberals aren't Patriots. Remember 1789!)
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To: SeekAndFind

Ritalin boys develop are real no care attitude.


85 posted on 10/01/2012 10:02:33 AM PDT by bmwcyle (Corollary - Electing the same person over and over and expecting a different outcome is insanity)
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To: LibLieSlayer
“I have a PHD in Humanities and Women's Studies.”

You're totally useless, lie down and die, you're consuming precious oxygen!

86 posted on 10/01/2012 10:06:27 AM PDT by dalereed
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To: No Socialist

Yeah my friend said the same thing, they often quit after their first check is garnished.

A man hasn’t got a prayer after a divorce.

Cheapest way is to stay out of court, say how much do you want, and get out as cheaply as you can.


87 posted on 10/01/2012 10:07:08 AM PDT by Venturer
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To: cripplecreek
Ever seen what happens when an idiot gets their shirt tail hung in a disk grinder with a wire wheel on it?

They get to hold their guts in on the way to the doctor.

I had one idiot, first day on the job, dropped a joint of 2 3/8” tubing on his hand thinking he was going to bruise it and get put on light duty where he could collect a paycheck without working.

Didn't go exactly as planned. Broke his ring finger on his left hand. Not half ass either. It was laying to the side.

That was about 8 or 9 in the morning.

We stopped for lunch at about 1. That's when I took him to the doctor.

Last person ever intentionally hurt themselves on my crew.

88 posted on 10/01/2012 10:10:36 AM PDT by IMR 4350
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To: IMR 4350

Unbelievable


89 posted on 10/01/2012 10:12:18 AM PDT by wally_bert (There are no winners in a game of losers. I'm Tommy Joyce, welcome to the Oriental Lounge.)
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To: Jim from C-Town

There’s lots of skills with the over 50 crowd who have been laid off and still have a lot of good productive years left.


90 posted on 10/01/2012 10:17:05 AM PDT by virgil
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To: SeekAndFind
we have a hard time finding people who can pass the drug test.

Current drug tests detect any marijuana use within the past 30 days; how much does the joint you shared three weekends ago have to do with your ability to do a job today?

91 posted on 10/01/2012 10:17:25 AM PDT by JustSayNoToNannies (A free society's default policy: it's none of government's business.)
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To: Navy Patriot

Absolutely! ;-)

LLS


92 posted on 10/01/2012 10:23:11 AM PDT by LibLieSlayer ("if it looks like you are not gonna make it you gotta get mean, I mean plumb mad-dog mean" J. Wales)
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To: JustSayNoToNannies

It sounds like that joint from three weeks ago has to do with whether or not a person is hired. I suppose a person could start their own company and not use drug tests.


93 posted on 10/01/2012 10:24:18 AM PDT by AD from SpringBay (We deserve the government we allow.)
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To: dalereed

Dang! Good thing it was satire! ;-)

LLS


94 posted on 10/01/2012 10:26:01 AM PDT by LibLieSlayer ("if it looks like you are not gonna make it you gotta get mean, I mean plumb mad-dog mean" J. Wales)
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To: Little Bill
"My Kid and I were taking apart vehicles from the time he was three"

So is he a car stripper or did you show him how to put them back together too? :-)

95 posted on 10/01/2012 10:29:12 AM PDT by Average Al
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To: Sacajaweau

“I had to teach my grandchild how to make change...”

This aggravates me to no end to see how many kids AND adults who cannot count or make change. I know some of them think I’m a horse butt when I show them how to make change, but, if the cash register computer didn’t tell them how much change to give to a customer, then they would not have a clue what the proper amount is. Every now and then, one or two of them will see the light bulb go one and they thank me, but not many do. Perhaps if the schools really taught the 3 Rs and made the kids learn them, then the burger emporiums would not have to put a picture of a hamburger or fish sandwich in place of the number keys on a register.


96 posted on 10/01/2012 10:29:26 AM PDT by miele man
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To: RitchieAprile

up hill


97 posted on 10/01/2012 10:40:47 AM PDT by sleepwalker (Palin 2012)
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To: factoryrat

I’ve never hired anyone. I understand having to train new employees, but that is after they have been hired. How is the interview held? Does it go into enough depth to know if someone can do what is required, and who determines someone’s soft skills and are they even important?


98 posted on 10/01/2012 10:40:57 AM PDT by stuartcr ("When silence speaks, it speaks only to those that have already decided what they want to hear.")
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To: JustSayNoToNannies

At the very least, it shows me a willingness to break the law and do end runs around company rules and procedures.

The science is settled on the effects of MJ on the hypocampus which controls initiative, motivation, and judgment as well as diluting the activation flight or fight reflex. Wouldn’t want an individual like that operating my machinery or doing health care.

Ilicit drug users have blood on their hands in terms of the killings that go on in the wars to control the drug trade. Unless laws could be passed to allow MJ users to grow a little of their own so that they can truly claim that their’s is a harmless(to others) past time, they don’t know that the joint they smoke may have just had a murdered and beheaded mexican teen-ager attached to their habit!


99 posted on 10/01/2012 10:42:22 AM PDT by mdmathis6 (We have grieved the Holy Spirit, with our Dark hearts and dark minds turned against God!)
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To: AD from SpringBay
Current drug tests detect any marijuana use within the past 30 days; how much does the joint you shared three weekends ago have to do with your ability to do a job today?

It sounds like that joint from three weeks ago has to do with whether or not a person is hired.

If it has nothing to do with your ability to do a job, why does it have anything to do with whether or not you're hired?

100 posted on 10/01/2012 10:42:57 AM PDT by JustSayNoToNannies (A free society's default policy: it's none of government's business.)
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