President Blames Unemployment On Lack Of Tech Skills

IEEE ^

[Florida_Irish]

During a Wednesday morning (July 30th) press conference, President Bush was asked a question about jobs going overseas as a result of technological innovation. His response was:

"I fully understand what you're saying. In other words, as technology races through the economy, a lot of times worker skills don't keep up with technological change."

Many people have taken his response to mean that unemployment in the high-tech sector is the result of American workers who allowed their skills to become obsolete. This is an unacceptable explanation.

[StolarStorm]

It was a lame response, but in fairness he has a lot on his plate right now.

[Florida_Irish]

Learn new skills. Stay ahead of the competition.

Skills like living in the US on under $10,000 a year?

[wesdale]

Bush is still right.

No, I'm not asking my employer for any less than i think I deserve. But I know that as soon as they find someone who can do what i do, and asks less for it, they will let me go. It's up to me to be valuable. It's not up to Bush to protect my job.

Whatever the reason for H1-B visas, it makes sense to hire the best for less. When I shop for software and hardware I look for the best quality at the best price. I don't expect any one to be any different. That's the way markets work, wether it's the job market or the supermarket.

Again, if your job can be done by someone else for less, make yourself more valuable.

[holdmuhbeer]

He won't have anything on his plate after 2004 if he doesn't wake up, he'll be unemployed like the rest of us. Not that he has to work for a living anyway so it won't matter.

[thackney]

I wish that was true. It looks like he was trying to turn this into a reason for a government program.

excerpt from:
Office of the Press Secretary
July 30, 2003
President Bush Discusses Top Priorities for the U.S.
Press Conference of the President
10:33 A.M. EDT

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/07/20030730-1.html

Q Thank you, Mr. President. Staying with that theme, although there are some signs of improvement in the economy, there are sectors in the work force who feel like they're being left behind. They're concerned about jobs going overseas, that technology is taking over jobs. And these people are finding difficulty finding work. And although you're recommitted yourself to your tax cut policy, do you have any ideas or any plans within the administration of what you might do for these people who feel like there are fundamental changes happening in the work force and in the economy?

THE PRESIDENT: Sure. Listen, I fully understand what you're saying. In other words, as technology races through the economy, a lot of times worker skills don't keep up with technological change. And that's a significant issue that we've got to address in the country.

I think my idea of reemployment accounts makes a lot of sense. In essence, it says that you get $3,000 from the federal government to help you with training, day care, transportation, perhaps moving to another city. And if, within a period of time, you're able to find a job, you keep the balance as a reemployment bonus.

I know the community colleges provide a very important role in worker training, worker retraining. I look forward to working with our community colleges through the Department of Education, coordinate closely with states, particularly in those states in which technology is changing the nature of the job force.

I've always found the community college -- and this is from my days as the governor of Texas -- found the community college to be a very appropriate place for job training programs because they're more adaptable, their curriculums are easier to change, they're accessible. Community colleges are all over the place.

And -- but you're right. I mean, I think we need to make sure that people get the training necessary to keep up with the nature of the jobs, as jobs change.

[Southack]

c#34

[StolarStorm]

"You do not have a right to a job because you were born in America."

But we do have the right that our government treat ALL citizens equally. Setting up the H1-B visa to screw specific professions violates that right.

[Fpimentel]

There are plenty of tech jobs starting at $35,000 per year in Southern California. The whiners who say they can't find any work in the tech industry are turning down jobs that pay $35,000 to $60,000 per year. If you have the skills you will get paid well, if you are a wannabe who was riding the dot com bubble you will get washed out.

[laweeks]

He'll be a one-term president if he doesn't get off his a$$ and do something to stop the flood of jobs out of the country. I refuse to take the blame that I didn't continue to go thru college every day of my life just so I can try to catch up to the jobs pouring into Mexico, Canada, and offshore.

I have a job teaching computer skills to many people who faithfully ran machines, did assembly, and you-name-it for dozens of years only to find that their employers would rather move everything to Mexico, where, oddly enough, those same people are crossing our borders to come up HERE. And then when they get here, they want free medical care, free education, and what's left of our jobs. It's extremely hard to keep these student's chins up when every day we read about Mexican-bound jobs. And there's only so many jobs asking for MS-Word, Excel, and Access skills. I'd rather not listen to George Bush be so flippant about the American worker. They don't deserve flippancy, but rather they deserve jobs.

It's been said by Rush Limbaugh (and I believe it) that the government CANNOT create jobs. But I firmly believe that the goovernment can DESTROOY jobs.

[carton253]

Before you don't vote for Bush, you need to realize that the President did not say what the headline accuses him of...

[dirtboy]

And if several thousand tech workers can't understand that simple fact, then they aren't smart enough to be employed in America.

Nice try. Bush should have thought through the question a bit better, as that old conventional wisdom has been overtaken by events concerning the new economy. The government can train out-of-work manufacturing workers and equip them with new technical skills until the cows come home - but if all the potential jobs have been shippped overseas, the training will convert folks from chronically-unemployed manufacturing workers to chronically-unemployed tech workers. And if you can't figure out that simple fact, you're not fit to comment on the issue.

[N3WBI3]

From the whitehouse website

Q Thank you, Mr. President. Staying with that theme, although there are some signs of improvement in the economy, there are sectors in the work force who feel like they're being left behind. They're concerned about jobs going overseas, that technology is taking over jobs. And these people are finding difficulty finding work. And although you're recommitted yourself to your tax cut policy, do you have any ideas or any plans within the administration of what you might do for these people who feel like there are fundamental changes happening in the work force and in the economy?

THE PRESIDENT: Sure. Listen, I fully understand what you're saying. In other words, as technology races through the economy, a lot of times worker skills don't keep up with technological change. And that's a significant issue that we've got to address in the country.

He did say it

[RightWhale]

Keep this up and I'll vote for Perot--AGAIN!

Ross lifted the hood on his car and found he had already outsourced the engine.

[dirtboy]

There are plenty of tech jobs starting at $35,000 per year in Southern California.

And what does housing cost in Southern California? $35,000/year is a living wage in Central PA, but not in L.A.

[carton253]

laweeks... you know that the President wasn't being flippant, but using the advancement of technology and the need for some of the unemployed to update their skills as an illustration only.

[dfwgator]

Reading Bush's comments in that light, I accept the idea. The problem is that this is going to get parsed into essentially "let them eat cake."

[holdmuhbeer]

Again, if your job can be done by someone else for less, make yourself more valuable.

And what new skills would you suggest a techie learn to make himself able to compete with an Indian programmer making 6k a year? I know maybe I could learn to be a millionaire star athlete, no too old for that. Maybe a millionaire hollywood actor, no too conservative for that. Any suggestions?

[Elliott Jackalope]

Oh yes, community colleges. The last time I set foot on a community campus I had to leave ten minutes later or I would have puked. Everywhere you looked there were signs up proclaiming the wonders of "diversity" and "tolerance" and "multiculturalism" and "gay studies" and "privilege studies" and on and on and on and on and on until you want to scream. The people walking around the campus looked like rejects from a nightmare, mixed in with what looked like extras from "Night of the Living Dead".

What a bunch of hooey. Yes, go to community college, and get nonstop hate propaganda spewed in your face because of your hideous crime of being a white male.

I would rather get a root canal than set foot on a college campus nowadays. Colleges are for propagandists and Bolsheviks, not for people who want to learn something useful.

[dirtboy]

Whatever the reason for H1-B visas, it makes sense to hire the best for less

No, it makes sense for this country to quit making it easy for our economic competitors to kick our butts and siphon millions of good-paying jobs away, leaving an ever-shrinking middle class caught between job loss and a rapacious government consuming more and more of their paychecks.

[SwinneySwitch]

Q Thank you, Mr. President. Staying with that theme, although there are some signs of improvement in the economy, there are sectors in the work force who feel like they're being left behind. They're concerned about jobs going overseas, that technology is taking over jobs. And these people are finding difficulty finding work. And although you're recommitted yourself to your tax cut policy, do you have any ideas or any plans within the administration of what you might do for these people who feel like there are fundamental changes happening in the work force and in the economy?

THE PRESIDENT: Sure. Listen, I fully understand what you're saying. In other words, as technology races through the economy, a lot of times worker skills don't keep up with technological change. And that's a significant issue that we've got to address in the country.

I think my idea of reemployment accounts makes a lot of sense. In essence, it says that you get $3,000 from the federal government to help you with training, day care, transportation, perhaps moving to another city. And if, within a period of time, you're able to find a job, you keep the balance as a reemployment bonus.

I know the community colleges provide a very important role in worker training, worker retraining. I look forward to working with our community colleges through the Department of Education, coordinate closely with states, particularly in those states in which technology is changing the nature of the job force.

I've always found the community college -- and this is from my days as the governor of Texas -- found the community college to be a very appropriate place for job training programs because they're more adaptable, their curriculums are easier to change, they're accessible. Community colleges are all over the place.

And -- but you're right. I mean, I think we need to make sure that people get the training necessary to keep up with the nature of the jobs, as jobs change.