The headline written by the IEEE claimed that the President Blames Unemployment On Lack of Tech Skills. He did not.
That I agree is not an accurate headline. I posted a separate thread after this one was initially yanked that was titled something along the lines of " Bush's comments regarding employment training”. However, I do think that, since the reporter’s question did mention outsourcing, that the subject is in play – Bush, by not responding to that aspect of it, indicates that his administration has no plans to address it, and an article from the Financial Times of India claims just that – that the Bush Admin will asks states trying to combat outsourcing to back off.
635:
It all depends on who is looking for a job. Let's say the person looking for a job has one skill. He is able to put widget a in hole b. In this job market... not much call for a widget guy. So, $3,000 worth of training will be the difference between his getting hired or not.
With the loss of manufacturing jobs, it might be irrelevant.
Now, meet the average administrative assistant. Good skills on word, good on excel, does good on powerpoint. Laid off due to down sizing... $3,000 will enable that person to be able to include some desktop publishing, maybe some web design... her portfolio is fatter. So the $3,000 has helped.
Considering our floor has all of two admin assistants, and most people do all their own work nowadays, including travel arrangements, and Word does the work of desktop publishing nowadays, I think even that won’t accomplish much.
Now, meet the Kmart employee... He's resume says he can stock shelves. $3,000 may enable him to go to a tech school to learn a skill. That will make him more employable.
I look at machining. It used to pay $40K a year. Now machinists have been laid off in droves.
Vice President of Marketing is downsized. $3,000 isn't going to help him much.
That’s OK, every VP of Marketing I’ve ever known ain’t worth $3,000 anyway.
The IT sector... jobs disappearing overseas...no, $3,000 isn't going to help that person. But, let's be honest, IT workers are a dime a dozen. And in every class I sit in at the university is 1/2 IT or IS or something. But that doesn't justify the outsourcing of jobs.
As I told Southack, my company is actually bucking this trend and is insourcing jobs – as a strategic directive. So we’ll see who wins and who looses, and in the end that’s the best way to arrest the decline – figure out how to make keeping good-paying jobs here in the U.S. a competitive advantage for companies. But our current government policies, IMO, encourage short-term thinking.
652:
Did the economy grow by 2.4% or not...
Over half of that growth was due to increased government spending. That’s not the kind of growth that sustains a solid economy in the long run, nor do I care to have more government employees added to address the unemployment problem.
Well gee you could have stated that several hundred replies ago, but you didn't.
To me, this was the debate.
With the loss of manufacturing jobs, it might be irrelevant.
Training is very relevant with the loss of manufacturing jobs. It's the only hope the unemployed manufacturing worker has to gain meaningful employment. If there are not manufacturing jobs, then he has to change and grow... $3,000 will allow the process to begin.
Considering our floor has all of two admin assistants, and most people do all their own work nowadays, including travel arrangements, and Word does the work of desktop publishing nowadays, I think even that won’t accomplish much.
Right and wrong... the job still exists because of older management who will not do these things for themselves. To be competitive, it is important for the admin assistant to bring as much to the table as she can. In 20 years... the admin assistant will be a thing of the past. A dinosaur...
Kmart employee...
You are missing the point the argument... the point we agree on is that jobs are disappearing... the point you miss that these workers are going to have to change their skills if they want to gain employment... the only way they are going to do that is to be trained in another field... The training program the President spoke of will do this... or begin to do this...
652...did the economy grow. Yes, it grew by 2.4%. That's a fact. Did the government spending contribute to this growth... yes... we split this. Governemnt spending and adding employees to the role is not the answer.