Job Training Key to Unemployment Crisis

(CBS)  In an economy struggling with the highest rate of joblessness in more than 25 years - where even highly skilled workers are being shown the door - the last thing anyone wants to hear is this:

"There is no ray of sunshine in the near term. Not in the next three to six to 12 months," said economist Mark Zandi.

Economists say that because new people enter the job market all the time the U.S. needs to add at least 125,000 to 150,000 jobs a month to keep the unemployment rate from rising - but we've been losing that number or more month after month, reports CBS News correspondent Dean Reynolds.

No need to tell that to Frank Fons.

He lost his job as a banker eight months ago and has managed just 12 interviews since.

"We're working all day long on trying to locate the next paid opportunity," Fons said.

Another problem is that while there are actually more than two and a half million job openings, many require skills the unemployed will need time to acquire.

Obama: Jobs Summit Generated Good Ideas

That's what they're trying to do at a Chicago vocational training center -- the one Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner visited in October, when he met Lorine Baker.

On Friday Baker will complete a 14-week course in wood-working.

"Wow. I can't believe I can do this. They've taught me a lot," Baker said.

But the demand for this kind of traditional manufacturing skill -- versus a more high-tech capability -- has not been growing. Nor has the need of prospective employers.

At Chicago Booth Manufacturing, which sells mostly to restaurants, orders have slowed because the company's customers can't get loans to expand.

"If they can't get that money, they can't buy our furniture," said Dave Bochniak, the company's president.

Frank Fons used to deal with those kinds of companies from his desk at the bank. Now with time on his hands he says he'll be paying attention to the president's jobs summit.

"But I'm not necessarily expecting miracles out of that," he said.

He knows there could be a long way to go.

[PR_in_Alabama]

http://www.darwinsfinance.com/top-10-college-degrees-2009/

[hartmanlord]

Let's train everyone to be a rocket scientist and see who has to flip the burgers (I bet we would have some). Then the reasoning would be "those" burger flipping rocket scientist are lazy and just want a hand out.
We will always have income classes, but should the lower "working class" only earn enough to starve? That's a real incentive to work.
Instead let's do this - give more to the rich (because that have earned it) and "HOPE" that they create jobs, producing goods and services that there is no demand.
Maybe our problem is all the smart, well educate, and RICH are making all the decisions.
I noticed the job summit had all of those RICH, smart and well educated people represented (no burger flippers were there). Maybe paying burger flippers a little more or reducing their taxes (and raising the taxes on the top income group) a little would solve our recession. Gosh, and I am not even a rocket scientist (or a burger flipper)!

[PR_in_Alabama]

We need Electrical, Mechanical engineers, Electricians. People that can build, design products & machinery, we need Doctors, Nurses...Many folks attend school for the easy stuff, accounting, liberal arts, business. Taking easy street is not helping the country.

[askagain]

butterflync - I love your attitude. My first job was at a grocery store at age 14. I have three degrees. I always told members of my family that I would work in a grocery store if it meant putting food on the table. There are few guarantees in life. If it requires training for a new career, so be it. It is people like you who feel this country owes you a job. If you can't find a job, go into business for yourself. Become your own boss. Don't just sit around waiting for someone else to take care of you. Unemployment and welfare doesn't pay enough.

[butterflync]

Thanks for the note askagain. BTW I am taking in consulting work. I realize that this country doesn't owe me anything - no one does, and I don't collect any government payments either. I am lucky enough that I can be a stay at home mom the rest of my days if I would like.

Not everyone is so fortunate though, and the point that I am making is this. Kids in this country are taught to work hard (ie. such as folks in Manufacturing), go to college and study hard (ie. Professional jobs), and you will be able to make it and do anything in America. This part of the American dream is dying though. If the professional AND the manufacturing jobs are moving offshore (India, Mexico, China), then what is left? Retail is also doing pretty darn poorly as well.

America is outsourcing its MIddle Class, and if people don't recognize that as a problem, we are going to wake up & see some even more major issues on our hands. Add to that the government is attempting to tax to death even upper MIddle Class folks instead of just the rich. CHINA is holding most of our debt and becoming an even greater power. BUT this may stay solving some of the illegal immigration problem - they aren't gonna want to keep coming here so much...

[askagain]

Anyone wishing to remain in the workforce should plan to constantly upgrade their skills. Every job that I have had over the last 40 years required me to take continuing education courses and to become certified and re-certified in some cases. This has kept my skills current. A newspaper company that we do business with told an employee that, if he wanted to be considered for becoming publisher of one of their newspapers, he would have to finish college. He refused. chose to take a dead-end path, and eventually left the company. This is not how you improve your chances of keeping your job and advancing.

[jimmy97204]

I watched the story about employment and how many are out of work.

I have the perfect solution....immediately deport each and every person that is in this country illegally.

If the illegals were removed there would certainly be jobs out there for anyone that wanted to work.

There is no valid reason to reward an illegal who by the way, is a criminal by virture of their illegal entry with amnesty, a job, free education, free medical care and the ability to commit further crimes against CITIZENS of the United States.

mexicans make up the single largest group of illegals in this country and make up a significant percentage of inmate in our jails and prisons.

Jobs for citizens and legal residents first, it is time to take care of our own FIRST.

[democracy1]

by jimmy97204 December 3, 2009 9:59 PM EST

Jobs for citizens and legal residents first, it is time to take care of our own FIRST.
*******
I do agree with you on that, but I wonder what the employers would be willing to pay after their source of cheap labor dried up? Would it be legit pay with W2s or under-the-table? Would they pay for insurance? If they DID the right thing, would it drive prices up?

Definitely not arguing, just wondering. I say fine the cr@p out of any employer caught hiring illegals. And don't accept the "we didn't know they were illegal" excuse. Legal immigrants are fine; I have no problem with that, although I still think we need to put our own citizens 1st.

[pubsrtoast]

I would tend to agree and also say it is time to retire the H1B1 and similar programs. With real unemployment sitting at ~20% the claims that qualified American workers can't be found sound both bogus and hollow.

[butterflync]

Job Training is the answer that CBSNews has come up with??? Puleezze. So I guess all of us with professional white collar high tech jobs that have Masters degrees and have been laid off are supposed to run out and get training to be wood workers? Are you serious?? What about all the laid off attorneys out there, and the outsourcing of medical care to India?

The problem ISN'T retraining. The problem is that now that greedy companies have discovered that they can take the high tech jobs, the professional jobs that Americans have always gone to college for, and outsource them to India and China, what does that leave for Americans? Companies already outsources high paying manufacturing jobs in the 90s. So basically all the high paying jobs are leaving America, and the middle class is shrinking. Companies are making America into a third world company, where taxi drivers are going to make more than doctors. Welcome to the new millenium. And btw newsworthy8, I am a Black American who traces my ancestry in this country to 1720, so I think I can safely call myself a "plain old born in America" American. Geezzzzz

[pubsrtoast]

Remember when all those high-tech jobs were moving overseas how we were being told that we would just be retrained to work in the new up and coming biotechnology fields and then of course Bush used his one veto in six years against stem cell research which pretty much moved all the capital and jobs overseas along with everthing else.

[toldyouso21]

NEW TRAINING AT WHAT? Jobs have to be viable and result in enough income for those with the new jobs to go out and spend--thus creating even more jobs--not to many "service industry" jobs that depend on other service industry jobs are viable. For factory workers, it is going from 15 to 20 dollars an hour down to about 8 or 9.00 an hour--they will be lucky if they can afford a place to live, and a spot at the local soup kitchen..

ahhhhh yes--the joys of years of outsourcing and selling our production technologies....

[democracy1]

You hit it on the head. This is what I try to explain to those that try to defend "trickle-down" by saying that only the wealthy create jobs. NOT SO! The wealthy may own the companies, but if the Middle Class isn't spending and allowing those companies to make a profit, no new jobs will be created. A healthy Middle Class is the job creation engine.

Meanwhile the wealthy will continue to vacation in St Bart's while conducting further layoffs.

[pubsrtoast]

Everything follows manufacturing. I was recently reading how most R&D has now moved overseas to be near manufacturing.

[pecandrive]

This article is stupid. It says training is the key, but then the job that is being trained for is not in demand because new orders have slowed because of the economy.

[democracy1]

Anytime you expand your knowledge or skill base, you are increasing your potential to expand your employment opportunities. The trick is to know 1) What skills will be in demand and 2) What you love to do and hopefully put them together. The second may seem less important, but if you love what you do and can put your heart and soul into being the best at it, that also may give you an upper edge.

[toldyouso21]

The "get a job you love to do" is bunk. Most people want a paycheck..few can afford to love their work--or do you really think people want to stand all day swiping products at walmart or cleaning up the johns in a restaurant or at a gas station? Better advice is to "do any job you get to the best of your ability--so that when they have to lay someone off, maybe it won't be you"

[democracy1]

by newsworthy8 December 3, 2009 7:23 PM EST

Funny how you classify white Americans as "plain old born in America" Americans, yet you can't say the same for black Americans. But then I'll bet you'll try to tell us all that you're not racist, right?

Don't tell me that I'm the one playing the race card. YOU were the one who brought it up to begin with. And, yeah, I'm white.

jt92202 caught you out on it, too.

[toldyouso21]

Ironic, since many blacks in America can trace their ancestry back to the 1700 slave cargos--which is more than over half of the whites (mostly late 19th C and early 20 C immigrants can do) LOL

[mike18881]

I totaly agree with you. He's a racist.