Your number 3 is dead on. What is lacking is reliable labor.
And skilled labor is an entirely different thing. Bidding up the wages doesn’t suddenly make competent welders appear.
It promotes young people to get the training. It is called supply and demand and market forces. Get it?
One of the biggest problems faced by both employers and prospective employees today is specialization. There are so many different sets of skills needed for many businesses to manage effectively.
My own company is looking to lay off staff in some departments, even while other departments have a desperate need for talented workers. The simple problem is that the employees in Group A don't meet the company's needs for Group B.
“Your number 3 is dead on. What is lacking is reliable labor.”
Unfortunately many businesses will not hire extremely reliable and experienced mature workers aged 45+ even when those workers are willing to work at entry level wages. The logic when hiring a mature jobless individual for a lower salary position seems to be:
1) There’s something wrong with the person, otherwise they would have a job or wouldn’t have been unemployed so long.
2) She’ll leave the first time something better comes along
3) [whispered] He isn’t adaptable to today’s world
Meanwhile the same company will hire a freshly minted college grad, with a major in urban social studies and zero real world experience or skills, for the same job. The company will tolerate an irregular work schedule, complaints about not moving up fast enough, and poor performance.
From what I’ve seen, for most lower to mid level administrative and management jobs I’d bet on the silver haired experienced job seeker who needs the work and is willing to work at what is likely a much lower salary than he/she has in the past, than the high energy self-centered 20 something who must be trained and coddled. The mature profession will begin contributing from day 1 and is more likely to be a reliable and loyal worker if he/she can tolerate a 30 year old boss who knows everything about everything.