Bacon's Rebellion

Democracy Thrives in Sunlight

Virginia’s Jobs-Skills Mismatch

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by

James A. Bacon
in ,

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Evidence is mounting that a reason for slow economic growth and high unemployment — not the main reason but a significant one — is the mismatch between the skills required for the jobs that American companies have to fill and the skills that American workers actually possess.

A recent survey of 87 small and midsize business CEOs conducted by the Robins School of Business at the University of Richmond and the Richmond Council of CEOs found the following: 70% staffing was a significant issue, particularly the finding, recruiting and training of operational and sales talent.

When asked how much their annual revenues might increase if their talent concerns were resolved, more than half of all CEOs (51.7%) indicated they would experience growth of 11% or more, with 17.2% of firms indicating potential revenue growth of more than 20% if they could solve their staffing issues.

The problem is concentrated in two main areas: sales and IT. “The CEOs I work with are very concerned with attracting talent in two areas,” says Scot McRoberts, executive director of the Virginia Council of CEOs. “Many small business CEOs are raising the bar for their sales teams. … In our local IT community, programmers and coders are just not there in sufficient skill and quantity.”

Let’s see…. Businesses want employees with different skill sets. Employees want skills that will get them hired. Virginia has a massive educational/job training establishment — colleges, universities, community colleges, job training programs — that spends billions of dollars a year. Yet, somehow, the system is not functioning properly. Old skills are obsolescing faster than ever as businesses strive to incorporate new technologies, and the education/training system can’t keep up.

Bacon’s bottom line: If those 87 CEOs are representative, thousands of jobs in Central Virginia alone are going begging. Instead of trying to create jobs by building baseball stadiums and sports arenas, perhaps our political and civic leaders should focus on the jobs-skills mismatch. On the other hand, maybe they shouldn’t. Given their track record, maybe they should just stay out of the way.

Regardless, we need a new system to equip Virginians with the skills they need to be employable and that businesses need to be competitive — a system that can keep up with fast-evolving technology. Will we get that system? Don’t count on it. The existing system is ossified in place by funding streams determined more by politics and institutional privilege than by market demand.

— JAB

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25 responses to “Virginia’s Jobs-Skills Mismatch”

  1. larryg Avatar
    larryg

    and to add to it:

    “On beyond high school (21st century skills)”

    Fewer rote tasks, more automation, more independent thinking…the changes in the 21st century workplace are requiring students to continue on beyond high school if they want to succeed. The U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) estimates that two out of three jobs created between 2006 and 2015 will require education or training beyond a high school diploma.

    Lower-wage service jobs will increase as well, including elder-care workers for the aging members of the Baby Boom generation. But high-wage work will increasingly require more education. College graduates, in other words, can expect to continue to earn good salaries, while workers who haven’t gone to college will have far fewer chances to earn a living wage.

    ….

    “The failure of educational attainment to keep up with technology-driven skill demands has been a major factor behind the massive surge in income inequality over the past several decades,” say Goldin and Katz in their 2007 book The Race Between Education and Technology. “In the early 20th century, we created almost universal access to high school. We have not done the same with college.”

    Even so, says Katz, “there has been much more growth of inequality among college graduates than among noncollege workers. … Only some people are coming out of college with the high-level reasoning skills” needed to succeed.

    So while a college diploma may become increasingly necessary, what makes the difference is still the skills and knowledge that diploma represents

    http://www.centerforpubliceducation.org/Main-Menu/Policies/21st-Century/On-beyond-high-school-21st-century-skills.html

  2. TMT Avatar
    TMT

    My grandfather used to counsel all of us “Take up a trade.” Neither I nor my three brothers took his advice, but looking back, his recommendation was far from foolish. One of my nephews hated college; dropped out and became a mover. He soon learned to hate that job as well. He got a job with a large grocery store chain, where they asked him if he’s like to be a meat cutter and learn the trade of a butcher. He’s happy; makes reasonable money; and has seen several promotions. College isn’t for everyone, but everyone needs more than a high school diploma to advance beyond the lowest-paying jobs.

    1. larryg Avatar
      larryg

      I did not go to college right after high school either. The money was spent in an effort to develop a business – which failed.

      But I took jobs. First in a floor shop, then in the shoe dept at Leggets, then the toy dept at Kmart then as a service station manager in a Phillips 66.

      I did not realize until later – but each one of those jobs required some minimal skills – i.e the ability to draw up an order – making sure you only got 2 size 9’s of the Florsheim shoes or you did not order 4000 gallons of regular unless you had room for it.

      this sounds pretty basic but I assure you that there are folks in this world who cannot do this right – and worse – they won’t take responsibility for doing it right.

      Part of this is due to kids who have parents who are not capable of these basic skills – and the school system does not take them to the next level of being responsible for your work – because they don’t expect you to go to college and – the long and short of it – they expect you to .. fail anyhow.

      we hold those not bound to attend college to a lower level – and they pretty much do as they as expected to do because we never hold them to a higher expectation to start with.

      The bottom line is that many of our high schools are NOT the place for students who are not college-bound. The money from taxpayers is targeted to those who plan on attending college. There are good jobs for technical folks but we pretend otherwise.

  3. larryg Avatar
    larryg

    I’m slowly but surely coming around to the point of view that the public schools are going to prioritize resources to the kids with the strongest most active parental advocates and will do so at the expense of the disadvantaged.

    The question is – what would you do about it?

    the idea of public schools is fundamental to the promise of American opportunity but we already know that separate but equal can come about in a number of different ways and I think we may be seeing the de facto equivalent of this in our current schools on the difference between college and non-college tracks.

    it’s not only a moral issue – it’s an economic issue.

    It’s one of the reasons why we are seeing more and more economic separation between the haves and have nots and in turn why we have a burgeoning entitlement burden – as well as an incarceration rate that is the highest in the world.

    How do we fix this?

    let me back up – how do we convince people that this is a problem as many seem to be in denial about it?

    I don’t want to thrown my lot in with the voucher folks – for a couple of reasons, 1. – I don’t think they have real good motives and 2. voucher schools without performance standards are just another way to prey on the poor.

    but I think the time has come to introduce competition to the public schools on educating those who are not necessarily college-bound but do have sufficient IQs and motivation to succeed in technical occupations if we actually deliver a legitimate technical education to them.

    Most 18 year olds are not going to turn down a real job earning real money and instead choose to live on the streets,dealing drugs and inevitably headed to prison.

    Can we trust the public school system to change its ways and actually provide a serious education to those that are not college bound?

    I think the jury is out but I’m more and more of the view that they will not.

  4. DJRippert Avatar
    DJRippert

    Companies in Virginia should be banned from enforcing non-compete agreements with any of their employees unless they devote at least 3% of revenue to ongoing employee training.

    California bans the enforcement of non-competes. Boy, did that ever shut that state out from innovative technology companies!

    Mass. is now considering a law that will ban non-compete agreements in that state too.

    While I am sympathetic to CA and MA’s concept of banning non-competes outright I still think companies should be able to enforce non-competes if they actually train people. After all, it’s “protection of its investment in training employees” which is usually given as the reason for non-competes in the first place.

    In reality, it is usually restraint of trade that drives non-competes, pure and simple.

    Regardless of non-competes, theft of IP, trade secrets, etc is still illegal.

    1. virginiagal2 Avatar
      virginiagal2

      I agree re non-competes.

      FYI, you can have the employee sign a contract that they will repay the tuition, on a sliding scale, if they don’t stay a certain time past the class(es.) That’s actually fairly common. Typically it’s taken out of the last paycheck or paychecks.

  5. Ghost of Ted Dalton Avatar
    Ghost of Ted Dalton

    Interesting that you posted on this.

    IMO, this should be part of “new urbanism.” Ultimately, the 21st century is going to be about rapid innovation/skills. States/localities (take your pick) are going to need to offer free public educations for life. If your job gets outsourced, go to your local college/job training center and learn a new skill. yes, for “free” with subsidies for a few months of living expenses. It is ridiculous that I know at least 5 extremely intelligent individuals who decided to take jobs that pay less/don’t utilize their talents b/c “I have a family and going back to school, even for year, would decimate us.” Thus, they feel the need/pressure to “keep bringing home a paycheck” rather than retraining. These are people who could be much larger contributors to society if they could retrain for a few months w/o worrying about wrecking their family’s financial situation.

    The 21st century is going to be about rapid skill development in workers. Those nations/states that offer universal, free “skill development” education for adults will own the 21st century. An educated, open-minded, adaptable workforce is going to be the most important advantage a polity can have in the coming decades in terms of economic development. I’m not talking about “associates” or “bachelors” degrees. I’m talking about streamlined 6 month programs that local colleges collaborate with private employers to develop basic skills for openings in the area/state. That should occur in the 21st century.

    But I think America will fall further and further behind as the Republican/Tea Party is fighting to slash education budgets up and down the board rather than expand and transform the idea of education into a lifetime value that offers citizens a fighting chance in the 21st century economy.

    1. larryg Avatar
      larryg

      It’s actually not easy to figure out what the GOP wants these days with regard to education.

      it’s like health care or immigration – there are “ideas” but no real core agenda other than knock down the would-be unions and fire “bad” teachers and give vouchers to anyone who says they have created a for-profit “school”.

      but the idea that many jobs will require either continuing education and/or retraining is probably not far from the mark.

      but first – we have to address the perception that we’re not behind educationally and that any generic college degree is all you need for a good job – a career.

      People are going to need to think in terms of moving from one job to another – not necessarily a bad thing if it gains you more experience and knowledge .

      One of the biggest impediments to people “thinking” more mobile is – health care – which is tied to the employer and the employer knows you are “stuck” especially if you have a family because switching jobs at age 40 or 50 is a high wire act.

      Portable Health care would change the dynamics dramatically.

      I predict a bright future for the Health Care exchanges – as people start to realize that once they sign up – from that point on – consideration of a new or different job will be based on things other than continuation of health care insurance.

    2. DJRippert Avatar
      DJRippert

      You were doing so well until you started with the Tea Party slashing budgets.

      America spends a huge percentage of our GDP on government. That percentage has grown and grown for the last century.

      “Government Spending started out at the beginning of the 20th century at 6.9 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). As you can see from Chart 2.21, the federal share of that spending was modest. But spending got a big kick in World War I and ended up at about 12 percent of GDP in the 1920s.

      Then came the Great Depression, in which President Roosevelt and the New Deal cranked up federal spending, and total government spending rose up to 20 percent of GDP. World War II really showed how the United States could commandeer its national resources for all out war. Government spending peaked at just under 52 percent of GDP in 1945.

      President Clinton said, in 1995, that the era of big government was over. But he was wrong. The post World War II era has been a golden age of government spending, and it shows no sign of ending. Although spending dropped back to 21 percent of GDP immediately after WWII, it steadily climbed thereafter until it hit a peak of 35 percent of GDP in the bottom of the recession of 1980-82. Thereafter government spending chugged along in the mid 30s until the mortgage meltdown of 2008. In the aftermath of bank and auto bailouts, government spending surged to wartime levels at 41 percent of GDP. The mortgage emergency seems to have ratcheted out-year spending up a notch. Near term government spending in the future is pegging at 36 percent of GDP.”

      Source: http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/spending_brief.php

      Despite liberal rhetoric and the commentary of liberal lapdogs like Paul Krugman – there is NO AUSTERITY in government spending in the US.

      Should we spend more on education and less somewhere else? Maybe so. But please … the idea that the Tea Party has slashed government spending is a hoax.

  6. Les Schreiber Avatar
    Les Schreiber

    Welcome to the post crash world. Virginia’s reliance on DOD spending and a cheap undereducated labour force is not going to get it. In a recent CNBC poll of the best places to do business VA had significantly fallen from 1 or 2 to 8. Roads and highways here are stuck in the 1980’s.Education not a priority for the General Assembly .They are concerned with really important economic development issues like Trans vaginal probes to prevent abortion. How about a trip to Germany to look at how they educate those who do not go to university and a rather than planned trip to Cuba. The world has changed .Given the record of the Bible Thumpers in the General Assembly. Mississippi here we come.

  7. virginiagal2 Avatar
    virginiagal2

    I read the article and the link, and I have some background info. The ground truth is more complex than a jobs/skill mismatch.

    Virginia has the 3rd highest percentage of STEM workers in the nation, at 16.5% of the state workforce. That is a higher percentage than California. You can verify the stats at census.gov

    From what I’ve seen working in the area, Richmond does not have a shortage of programmer or coder skill sets, and there are plenty of people who could be quickly – and relatively cheaply – trained on the language of choice.

    However, from what I have personally observed, many small and medium businesses in the Richmond area are reluctant to pay IT salaries that are anywhere close to the going rate. If you are going to offer a low salary, you are going to have trouble filling positions with good people, particularly when those on the outskirts of the metro area can commute to areas that don’t have a problem paying the market rate.

    There are also several good colleges and universities in the area that are producing large numbers of well-qualified graduates. I have worked with them.

    You need to keep in mind, if you are trying to buy something, and having trouble finding someone to sell it to you, Econ 101 suggests you may be lowballing the price.

    1. James A. Bacon Avatar
      James A. Bacon

      I hope you’re right. If employers are simply low-balling potential employees, that raises the hope that they will come to their senses eventually, that they’ll hire more, generate more revenue and raise wages.

      I guess I wonder why so many employers would be lowballing their salaries. You’d think that some would go ahead and pay the market wage in order to grow their businesses.

      1. virginiagal2 Avatar
        virginiagal2

        I think it’s really hard for non-tech people to pay a high salary for someone with particular tech skills – it only gets easier if you’re really familiar with the market rate. The market rates for the most popular IT skills – for example, Java coding – are pretty high.

        The idea of paying a staffer 90K, when you’re the owner and not making all that much more than that, can be tough. Sometimes that Java coder will make you money at 50K but not at 90K, so you really can’t offer 90K.

        I think there are probably multiple reasons that salaries don’t float up – it would not be fair to imply it’s just people being stingy.

        A fair number of tech jobs can be used for self-employed income (writing and selling apps, or writing apps for others, for example) and in many cases there are jobs where someone can work remote, visiting the main work site only rarely, so employers here can be competing with DC and WA and CA. With the right skills, you have all kinds of options.

        I have a friend in NoVA with an advanced degree in CS, that works from home most of the time – just going in to close in to DC for occasional meetings – so she lives a lot further out than she would if she commuted.

        Random thought – would be interesting to think through the effect of the “work anywhere, just attend an occasional team meeting” worker on settlement patterns. At least some IT folks definitely do take advantage of that, especially the ones who like country living but can’t afford pricey close-in estates.

      2. larryg Avatar
        larryg

        Keep in mind – it’s not core STEM work. It’s the ability to reason and analyse with STEM-like skills – to use technology to solve real world problems.

        it’s because virtually every field now days is automated and computerized.

        Whether you’re operating a auto diagnostic machine or an MRI scanner, you have to have much more than a 20th century HS diploma.

        Not sure how we get to “low ball”. Employers pay what they must to get competent help. They won’t pay more than they have to.

        ” Almost a third of this year’s high school graduates who took the ACT tests are not prepared for college-level writing, biology, algebra or social science classes, according to data the testing company released Wednesday.”

        …………

        Just a quarter of this year’s high school graduates cleared the bar in all four subjects, demonstrating the skills they’ll need for college or a career, according to company data. The numbers are even worse for black high school graduates: Only 5 percent were deemed fully ready for life after high school.

        http://bigstory.ap.org/article/act-only-quarter-grads-ready-all-subjects

        you can find dozens of similar articles about the lack of 21st century reading/writing/math skills in HS graduates.

        1. virginiagal2 Avatar
          virginiagal2

          The ability to reason and analyze well enough to do a job doesn’t necessarily track with college level STEM skills.

          Operating an MRI machine is something that requires specific training in radiation technology, if I remember correctly, and AFAIK there is no shortage of radiation technologists.

          Using an auto diagnostic machine should not require any special math skills. Using a tool that was programmed does not mean you need programming tools to use it, any more than you need a CS degree to use Facebook. Using diagnostic tools correctly probably requires specific training, but it’s not the same training as is required for the people who create the tools.

          I’m honestly not sure that you need college level writing, biology, algebra, and social science in order to operate a auto diagnostic machine. Why would you?

          The statistics you quote are from a college prep testing service, not a career placement service. I’m not arguing that high schools are doing the best job possible to turn out highly skilled graduates. My point is that they are probably turning out enough highly skilled graduates to fill the highly skilled jobs available.

          Low-ball comes in when you have skills in high demand, and you are not offering a competitive salary, benefits, and chance for advancement. The fact that you can’t hire easily when your offer is lower than market rate does not mean that there is a shortage of qualified employees. It means you low-balled the value of the job.

          Most jobs being created are low-wage, low-skill jobs. In numbers, the categories of greatest growth are retail sales and food service. See link below
          http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/31/business/majority-of-new-jobs-pay-low-wages-study-finds.html?_r=0

          1. larryg Avatar
            larryg

            you need higher core competency levels – both language and math-reasoning type skills to be able to operate most technology-related equipment now days.

            the ability to read a technical manual and the ability to use the kind of reasoning you would if you were going to use multiple levels of steps …

            this is what you’ll see over and over in the studies whether it’s from an education perspective comparing us to OECD or our own employers who need people who have the reading and math-reasoning skills to troubleshoot problems.

            liberal arts is not going to get it anymore for most jobs.

            there are LOTS of jobs for people who have the skills.. but if you don’t have skills then you are competing against others in numbers – which makes those jobs more and more “low bid”.

            these are not just my views – you can easily google this and get it.

            I’m just a realist.. and not one who thinks we can just look back and wish for what used to be.

            we have to look forward and we have to deal with the current realities and it’s a different world now.

          2. larryg Avatar
            larryg

            re: “Low-ball comes in when you have skills in high demand, and you are not offering a competitive salary, benefits, and chance for advancement.”

            I guess it’s a matter of perspective but to me it’s the market at work and there is no way that we can fix it with regulation that is likely to work or have support to do.

            So it’s the reality to me and I know that if you have higher skills, you have a better chance to do better than you would if you do not.

            And that’s where you should be pointed to educationally – if you are in it for the longer run.

            It’s not fair – but it is the reality. you have to have the reasoning skills to solve more complex real world problems if you want a better job than a service job – even though the higher skill job is not like it was years ago in terms of salary and benefits.

            In a global economy – you have to compete.

          3. larryg Avatar
            larryg

            I’m not advocating lower wages, globalization, more service jobs, or the need for higher skill-sets because I think they are right. I’m saying that – that is the reality of the 21st century in a world where if you decree higher wages for something – it will essentially drive the production overseas to where it will be done for less.

            If we set up protectionist responses – we’ll forfeit entire industries to other countries and end up with little or no native capacity here.

            Perhaps we were better off before globalization but it was in some respects protected environment that was not really sustainable.

            For decades, the US had the economic world on it’s terms. Globalization has pretty much washed that away.

            But I still believe if you look at ANY industry in the US whether it’s education, or medicine for an aging population, or autonomous vehicles from drones that examine power lines and pipelines to drones that dust crops, to crowdsourcing traffic or parking data to uber/lyft, the world is changing and there is opportunity for those that have good language and mathematical “reasoning” skills and think entrepreneurially but those looking for a “secure” job – especially one that assumes doing the same thing over and over… are gambling … with service jobs for the losers.

            they’re called “disruptive” technologies but what they really are – are jobs that have tried to hold on to old ways of thinking – and then something comes along – and just totally changes the game and – people – do – get thrown out of work – at age 35, 40, 50 and they don’t have the skills but worse don’t know how to get them any more.

          4. virginiagal2 Avatar
            virginiagal2

            Larry, basically what’s going to outsource, at this point, has outsourced.

            Higher wages, within reason, don’t drive production overseas. This next sentence is probably the most important of the whole bunch:

            The question is not solely cost – it’s cost/benefit.

            Companies that pay higher wages often do better than companies that are cheap – and that includes service jobs. Starbucks and Costco are both extremely successful, and both pay well over minimum for retail work.

            Being in the same country as your customers is an advantage. That is also worth money.

            Frequent turnover and recruitment are a huge expense. So is trying to do the job with second-best. You’re already competing against the idea of working for themselves, so it may actually be third-best when you go cheap.

            I understand your point about higher skill sets, but I don’t think you understand mine. I agree that, for the individual, you are better off and safer if you can get a higher skill set. I agree that we need to actively work to make it possible for any child, regardless of their parent’s parenting ability or economic status, to acquire those skill sets and to get new ones throughout life.

            What I’m pointing out is, the actual number of jobs USING very high-end skill sets are not unlimited. For example, you talked quite a bit about autonomous cars. Do you know how many people are on the team that is writing the toolkit for autonomous car? I found an article on who did it. Eleven engineers with advanced degrees, who work for Google.

            Google plans to license the software. Most companies are likely to use their software, just like most people use JavaScript rather than writing their own web scripting language.

            Ford isn’t a software company – do you think they’ll license Google’s software, or try to write their own? You’ll probably have 2-3 companies that write driving software (for example, Tesla might also do it, they have the smarts) but you’re not going to see each company writing their own autonomous driving package. Cheaper, more cost-effective, and less legal risk to use the standard, tested package.

            It’s an opportunity, for highly educated people – but it’s not an opportunity for a large number of them.

            I agree that success will come to those that have language, math, programming (which is not exactly the same aptitude as math, although the two often go together), and entrepreneurial skills. That still may not be a way out for the majority of the population, because technology is making it possible for fewer and fewer people to do more and more.

            I do not think your assessment of what is happening to older workers is quite accurate. In some cases, you have older workers who don’t have current skills. In many, many more, you have older workers who have perfectly good skills, and who have aggressively pursued keeping them current, but who do not have employers who are willing to hire them. If you think this is really just a matter of older outdated workers, you’re kidding yourself.

            One of the driving forces behind the wave of new businesses from older workers – and they’re starting the most new businesses, not the twenty-somethings – is age discrimination in employment.

  8. larryg Avatar
    larryg

    There are a TON of jobs for people dealing in information technology these days. All you really need to do to identify many of them is look at the apps on your smartphone.

    you get maps, traffic data… you can “connect” to your home, you can find a pizza or a cab… you can pay your bills, you can deposit your check, you can play your tunes via bluetooth in your car… you can check the computer data in your car… our traffic signals are becoming synchronized… you can find a doctor or a lawyer on the web… you can do your taxes online… you can shop for groceries online… on and on and on…

    each one of these requires people to make the apps, the communications, the databases, etc, to work.. people are writing apps for tablets in schools… apps to view web cameras… you name it..

    all of these are jobs.. for people who know two things – first the core business specific model – and then how it integrates and implements into information technology.

    you can’t create electronic medical records unless you know both how the records work – and how you’d make electronic versions – and then share them over communications networks to webpages or cell phones via secure/encrypted methods.

    Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, etc are huge communications databases…

    The jobs are there.. but you have to have the knowledge and skills to play in those games..

    1. virginiagal2 Avatar
      virginiagal2

      FYI, a significant number of apps are produced by independent creators, others by contractors, and others by employees. That’s a big part of the demand that’s driving up the cost of employees with those skills – you can work for yourself.

      You don’t have to have a college degree. You don’t even have to have an employer.

      There are a ton of free courses and tools for people to learn how to create apps, including some pretty good MOOC series. FYI, the person who does the programming is not necessarily the person who knows the core business. Work like this is divvied up – for complex apps, you don’t have one person doing networking and programming and systems analysis and business analysis.

      In fact, because more and more of the “back end” is being automated, the job growth for things like databases and networking is slower – because many applications use things like AWS that have automated much of many tech jobs.

      Facebook has a huge database and over a billion users, but less than 7,000 employees. That includes all of the Instagram employees, as it was bought by Facebook. Twitter and all of its subsidiaries have around 3,000 employees.

      The jobs are there, but there are not as many jobs as you seem to think, and many of them are skill sets that are essentially job training, not higher ed.

      1. larryg Avatar
        larryg

        I agree with you Virginiagal2! We already have models that work this way. Consider auto mechanics. Many have their own tools and their own set of certifications and work essentially on a split fee basis.

        but also think about ALL the things that ARE being automated – from medical records, to traffic data, to autonomous air,land,sea,undersea autonomous vehicles… lots of work for those with the requisite skills – which themselves are fast changing …

        the traditional benefits-providing career employer is going away… and small businesses that employ independent contractors who provide their own benefits and pay their own FICA is – a trend …. although I have at this point … not yet seen definitive studies to confirm.

      2. larryg Avatar
        larryg

        re: older workers – if they cost more than younger ones in benefits and they are not more skilled – then there may be some “discrimination” in that employers now days do not feel the responsibility and loyalty to workers than they once did – in part – because they themselves will be out of business if they do things – things good for workers – that make them more vulnerable to competitors.

        re: as many jobs.. we can build stuff – for the world – we have some competitive advantages to other countries…we should not be afraid of competing …

        we _may_ have been living above our means prior to globalization .. there is no way on Gods Green Earth that typical normal people should be living in 3000 sq foot homes…when you think about the rest of the world.

        1. virginiagal2 Avatar
          virginiagal2

          Older workers, particularly in software, face very significant age discrimination, starting around age 40. It isn’t a matter of them costing more – it’s a matter of people not being willing to consider them, no matter how current their skills, not even at the exact same salary a younger person would get.

          That’s a huge societal problem. What we are essentially setting up is a system where we pay young people very well for about twenty years, for skills we say are so rare that we need to focus our educational and immigration systems to address that shortage – and then after those twenty years, we tell the same people that they are obsolete, even if they’ve kept their skills current.

          If we have a shortage, why are we throwing away skilled people in their forties?

          Companies that treat workers well actually do better than companies that don’t. See Hess’s work. Most of this behavior is not driven by competitors – studies show being a jerk actually is not a competitive advantage – but rather obsessive focus on short term returns and an assumption, which is not supported by studies, that being ruthless about people is good business. In fact, the opposite is true – considering people as well as the bottom line, if done properly, actually increases profitability.

  9. larryg Avatar
    larryg

    I admit the age discrimination bothers me…. but if you have been in the field for a while – you should know more than a newbie does … about the various parts and pieces of a complex system.

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