600,000 manufacturing jobs go unfilled due to applicants lack of 'soft skills'

American Thinker ^ | 10/01/2012 | Rick Moran

[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.

[JustSayNoToNannies]

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?

I'd say it is because marijuana is an illegal substance and employers don't want to hire someone who smokes illegal substances.

Doubtful - as far as I know those employers don't generally rule out hiring those who commit other lawbreaking such as speeding.

[JustSayNoToNannies]

Add “feel entitled to regularly use recreational drugs and so cannot pass a drug screen” to the list.

Once in 30 days is "regularly"? And what does that have to do with job skills, soft or otherwise?

[djf]

The article talks about invention and tinkering.

Heck, since I was a kid, I’ve been taking things apart and putting them back together. As a result, I’m pretty good at fixing things.

But we don’t live in that kind of world anymore. We live in a disposable cell phone - go buy a new laptop world.

If you want to see something priceless, but at the same time very sad, take a good look at the expressions of some folks who find out that something they need is busted or doesn’t work anymore.

They get this blank look on their face like their brain has just gone totally into NEUTRAL.

Clueless!

I just move on. It’s frustrating for can-do people to be surrounded by others who are so helpless.

[factoryrat]

Testing is common in industry hiring practices. You don’t get an interview if you don’t pass the test. I’ve had to take the skilled trades battery test multiple times throughout the years, and the testing was pretty specific about what the employer was looking for in a person. One job I worked, two Electrical Engineers grilled me for over an hour before they decided to hire me. Judging by the people I worked with, they were really good at picking winners.