Enough of the candidates “creating jobs” or “bringing back jobs” or talk of full employment tripe, if they were any good at what they purport to do, they would be in the private sector, being useful and accomplishing good in the world.

Skills Deficit Makes ‘Creating Jobs’ a Pipe Dream

[snip]
That might seem strange at a time when the economy is teetering on the brink of recession, and has eclipsed Iraq as the No. 1 issue on many voters’ minds.

Here’s my reason: Other than during the depths of the Great Depression, the government doesn’t “create jobs.” (World War II created most of the jobs then anyway, and I’m not sure that’s the direction we should go.) Instead, a sensible government should help to create a skilled workforce and a decent business climate. If it does that, the jobs will take care of themselves.

Skills Gone South

To appreciate this distinction, consider two thought experiments. Here’s the first one:

1. How many different jobs could you find in the next six or eight months if you had to? Not perfect jobs, but places where you could get hired and earn a salary reasonably close to what you’re earning now.

I suspect this answer is going to vary widely among the people reading this column. For a star pediatric heart surgeon, the answer might be 10; every major children’s hospital would love to have him or her on staff. For an unemployed autoworker in Michigan, the answer is zero — or else he wouldn’t be unemployed.

The crucial point is that unemployment and low wages are not a function of too few jobs, as most politicians would have you believe. They’re a function of too few skills.

Joblessness in Context

We’re used to hearing about the unemployment rate, which climbed to 5 percent in December. Even that figure is somewhat misleading, though, because there’s extraordinary variance by education level. According to the most recent data from the Department of Labor, the unemployment rate is:

• 8.2 percent for high school dropouts.

• 4.7 percent for high school graduates with no college.

• 3.7 percent for workers with an associate’s degree or some college.

• 2 percent for workers with a bachelor’s degree and higher.

See the pattern?

Not Everybody’s an A-Rod

Here’s the second thought experiment, which gets at the heart of trade, outsourcing, and related causes of employment anxiety:

2. In December, the New York Yankees signed Alex Rodriguez to a 10-year, $275 million contract with a $30 million bonus if he breaks the all-time home run record. Why didn’t the Yankees hire a Chinese or Indian worker who would take the job for $500 a year, with a free moped for breaking the home run record? [snip]

A Clear DistinctionThat’s why I find it both puzzling and frustrating to hear politicians talk so much more about jobs than skills. The sad fact is that if a modern automobile plant came to Flint, Mich., most of the unemployed workers there wouldn’t have the right skills to get hired. [snip]

Skillful Questions

So here are three things the presidential candidates (and any other politician) should be talking more about:

• Preschool education

• The high school completion rate for African Americans and Hispanics

• A plateau in the proportion of Americans getting a college degree

Getting the colleges out of the business of remediation for high school students by insisting the students in K-12 actually learn instead of feeling good. Discipline, study and a strict requirement for graduation will go a long way to clearing up the current malaise.

We don’t need college grads, we need educated high school students.

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