At yesterday's Charlotte Chamber's annual economic outlook conference, Nucor CEO Dan DiMicco created a bit of a stir when he called the idea of a "skills gap" between workers' training and available jobs "complete hogwash."
DiMicco, who left the comfort of his easy chair to address the crowd of businesspeople and politicians, said employers need to create jobs for the skills workers have, moving back to making and building things.
"We are in a crisis," DiMicco told the audience. "There is a path out of this, but nobody in Washington is leading us in that direction."
Other local business leaders have told me there is a significant gap between the high-tech manufacturing jobs they need to fill and the skill set of prospective employees. Who's right? Do you agree with DiMicco's remarks that talk of a "skills gap" is overblown? Why or why not? Tell me here, and I'll print some of the responses in a future blog.
(We interrupt this blog to bring you this pressing question: How 'bout them Cats?! In case you missed it -- and how could you? -- those pesky Davidson Wildcats knocked off the 11th-ranked Kansas Jayhawks last night in a virtual home game for KU. Call it payback of sorts for the 2008 loss in the Elite Eight. Somewhere today, Stephen Curry is smiling and maybe talking smack.)
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Was Nucor CEO right about jobs?
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6 comments:
Of course their is a skills gap. DiMicco is a bit of a blow hard (I'm sure he is very competent) and loves to sound off and loves controversy, but even machining requires computer skills and aptitude that many people who are under employed don't have.
There's two sides to every coin.
For the jobs of today there is a skills gap. The technology that is applied for a specific task has moved faster than many individuals. In the light of that alignment, things don't look good.
But the jobs of tomorrow could be designed via process modeling to not require such complex technology.
For example, 10 years ago building a website was difficult and required very skilled people, but now just about anyone can start a wordpress blog in a matter of minutes. Taxes is another example. Not long ago doing the yearly filing was an involved, loathsome process, but now with Turbo Tax and products like it, it has gotten much easier.
Thanks,
Ben Leeson
In a perfect world, unemployment should be less than 6%. If you visit any career website, you will see that there are thousands of jobs available. Employers are hiring only if you have the right skillset. However, "skillset" can be loosely used because it is an employers market. Jobs are available. Yet, companies want you to have a specific skillset. We have also gotten away from educating students in having a trade. Majoring in English, Spanish, Psychology, etc is not going to land you a job in this economy when the out of work business majors and engineering majors are looking for the same job.
The jobs that have been lost were jobs in residential housing and mortgage banking as well as jobs in the furniture and textile industry over the last 10 years. I don't see residential housing recovering any time soon. I expect many of those workers will need new skills....hence the skill gap.
You hear about the skills gap all the time but no one will define it. People are out there with the technical skills to do the work. The person might not be "skilled" in the exact program the company uses, but today's graduates are so technically skilled they can pick it up in short order. So, they have the computer skills, it just may not be in My Company 2.0 like the employer wants, thus they make statements about a "skills" gap that may or more than likely may not exist.
Employers claim a skills gap because they want more govt. money to subsidize their business.
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