The one item in the article that isn't relevant to this discussion is the shortage of qualified truck drivers. There are many factors tied to that problem that have nothing to do with the labor force or the qualifications of workers.
I do agree that we have a "surplus of labor" in some respects. A big part of the problem is that we have an excess supply of workers in fields that really don't need them (lawyers, for example). One of the positive things that may happen in a period of long-term economic stagnation is that young people might sit back and take a good hard look at their career options before they pursue a career where they end up as just another one of hundreds of thousands of people whose skills and knowledge simply aren't needed.
One comment was that a long haul trucker making $50K has to spend $20K a year to live on the road (with all the attendant hardships).
I can attest to the youth having terrible work ethic I can’t tell you how many youth seem to have an expectation of being valued because they breath.
Corporate executives do not want to pay free market wages for workers. They prefer a system that will supply indentured servants with no recourse in the political or economic arenas. They don’t want to pay for training workers either.
That is the reality behind the so-called “skills gap”.
We can continue to perpetuate this myth that Americans don't want to work or that there are jobs they cannot do, but the reality is that both parties have abandoned the American worker who has become a disposable commodity.
Re: “In some cases the wages are not a valid indicator because a higher wage doesn’t necessarily reflect higher productivity. “
That is an indictment of business owners and business managers.
They cling to an out-of-date business model that cannot support current labor costs.
40 years ago, owners and managers would have increased capital spending or started a new business.
Today, owners and managers bribe politicians with campaign donations and beg the government to supply them with low cost foreign workers.
The one item in the article that isn’t relevant to this discussion is the shortage of qualified truck drivers. There are many factors tied to that problem that have nothing to do with the labor force or the qualifications of workers.
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The US tightened fed regs and took truckdriving out of voc high schools last year and made it a voc college programjust in time as NAFTA opened the border to Mex drivers. Of course US drivers are welcome to work in Mexico, but do not because it is so unsafe. Again a one way steet.