Posted on 07/23/2018 12:02:37 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Who would have thought a few years ago that the biggest problem facing the labor market today would be a lack of workers — not a lack of jobs? As recently as 2012, the unemployment rate was above 8 percent, more than twice its current rate.
Since President Trump's election, nearly 4 million new net jobs have been created. The unemployment rate has tied lows unseen since the Vietnam War, when men were being drafted to fight. Black and Latino unemployment rates are at record lows. And for the first time in recorded history, there are more jobs available than unemployed people to fill them.
This historically strong labor market is largely the result of President Trump's policies, including tax cuts, deregulation and increased access to credit. These have empowered businesses to direct their resources into creating products, expanding and hiring. The data demonstrates that Trump has kept his promise to be the jobs president.
While too many unfilled jobs may seem like the ultimate "First World" problem, it is a problem nonetheless. Nearly half of American employers say they struggle to find employees with adequate skills. That figure jumps to about three-quarters for employers in the skilled trades. According to several surveys, finding qualified workers is the biggest hurdle facing businesses today.
To address it, President Trump signed an executive order today creating The Council for the American Worker. This interagency initiative will advance workforce training through apprenticeships, public and private training and retraining efforts and education reform to prioritize hard skills.
The council will be responsible for making sure American workers have the skills needed to succeed for the jobs of today and tomorrow.
It will be advised by a board made up of private, public and nonprofit experts from outside the administration. The president’s selection of Ivanka Trump, Secretary of Labor Alex Acosta and Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross to lead this effort demonstrates his full commitment to workforce development; these are three people who have demonstrated throughout their respective careers that they get results.
The centerpiece of this initiative is a pledge singed by businesses promising to train their workforces for the 21st-century economy. This means arming their employees with the skills to succeed for the long term, independent of their particular employers. Such marketable skills are the ultimate safety net.
Employers should be happy to sign on. I can speak from experience as the former CEO of The Home Depot: Nothing gave me greater pleasure than watching my employees advance their careers by learning on-the-job skills. This not only helps employees but also employers, who reap the rewards of a more effective workforce.
Perhaps the biggest workforce development gains are to be made in the education system, which has not modernized with the economy. Too many young Americans are being pushed into bachelor of arts programs of limited value and excessive costs.
Meanwhile, the Labor Department predicts more than 1 million new jobs will be created in the fields of construction, maintenance and installation by 2026. More colleges need to offer and more students need to attend one- or two-year vocational training programs to land these jobs. Shop classes need to return to middle and high schools across the country.
The executive order will develop industry-recognized and portable credentials that can run parallel to those offered by vocational schools. It will also launch a public-relations campaign highlighting the value and career promise of work in the skilled trades.
This executive order to advance workforce development is the logical next step for a jobs president who has succeeded in achieving full employment. Now that essentially everyone who wants a job can get a job, it's time to help employees get better and more secure careers that reflect the modernizing economy.
Job Creators Network, the business advocacy organization I co-founded in retirement to reduce the barriers to job creation in America, will expand its mission to include workforce development.
JCN is ready to assist the Council for the American Worker by promoting the effort across our network of business owners and partner organizations.
WRONG
Trump should NOT create any government ‘training’ programs.
Give incentives to industries that have their own training programs (make 100% of ANY education tax deductible) but create no new government program
Am I the only one who remembers the waste of money known as CETA?
you can’t really focus on a new program to train America’s workforce while the leftist educational-industrial complex debt-fed bubble is still in place.
I have seen so many help-wanted signs recently.
Much more enjoyable to see than the ‘business closing’ signs during Odumbass’s terms
It later became the Job Training Partnership Administration.
Anyone else have mixed feelings about Ivanka being involved? I’m sure DJT trusts her and she’s apparently competent, but still...
Basic math and communication skills will land a young person a good entry level job.
Not create...but encourage. One thing the Germans do well is internships. Not sure what the rules are but it works...somehow. Combine that with upward mobility and who knows...maybe Reverend Al and the Rehvarund Jacksssson will go eventually go out of business?
Yep. ALL of these ‘First Daughters’ need to shut up and sit down - or concentrate on their own charitable work.
You know, like Chelsea does for HER Mom and Step Dad. ;)
Chelsea, the Obama and Bush daughters and Amy Carter, unlike Ivanka Trump, have never made a real dollar in their lives. Ivanka is a self-made billionaire. Big difference.
Wasting time in leftist run “colleges” is a shame.and is at your expense because we aren’t ever going to pay for your indoctrination which will cost you at least 100k. We will never pay for that.
I guess you missed that my comment was sarcasm. :(
Put Mike Rowe in charge. He has been pushing this for years. Has recently teamed up with “ This old House” to push the building trade
We can all get jobs hosting Shark Week. No skills necessary.
THIS 👆🏻
The core of the problem is the EJAKASHUN DEPAHTMINT.
I grew up in an era where most cities had a “TRADE SCHOOL”, believe it or not, one for the BOYS and one for the GIRLS.
Those TRADE schools turned out the future plumbers, electricians, mechanics, carpenters, machinists and the others who built, maintained and repaired this country. These Trade schoolers were the ones who kept the machinery of the WWII military running, floating, and flying. No longer.
Today youth is brainscrubbed to GO To collEGE and learn something. Not “DO something” but “learn something?”
Thus future workers have NO marketable skills. Except for those lucky enough to be attending “TECHNICAL HIGH SCHOOLS.
Most of those “high school grads” have jobs BEFORE they are handed their diploma, snapped up by companies searching for those who CAN DO.
Note to the POTUS: Enlist Mike Rowe. :-)
If that were indeed true wages would be going up sharply. Alas, they are not. This is BS. But still training is needed and always a good thing.
The best incentive for training is HIGHER wages.
For the past 30 years employers have been abusing the glut of baby boomers in the job market, plus the importation of workers through H-1B has meant they always have had the upper hand. Now that things are evening out they panic, F them all.
bmp
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