Too Many Skilled Workers?

There's a new book on my reading list, "The Disposable American: Layoffs and Their Consequences" by Louis Uchitelle. The NYTimes had a thought provoking article about the topic in yestersday's paper. The sad story is that despite our best efforts to retrain laid off workers, sometimes it's nearly impossible to find new careers with comparable benefits and wages. While there are many good points in the article, there were a few points that seemed oversimplified and misleading. 1. The author suggests that US employment policy is overly education and training-focused. This may have been the case under JTPA, but under WIA standards there is a much stronger effort to place people in jobs. We don't simply train people for positions because they want to go to training. There's a much stronger effort to train people for in-demand jobs. 2. "We have an oversupply of skilled people." This is a gross oversimplification of the labor market. People aren't widgets. Their skills take a while to be developed and refined. The real story is that we do a bad job predicting the skills and training that our economy needs. Look at the healthcare occupations that are begging for workers. Moreover, we have significant geographical challenges. Consider the issue of preparing enough educators. Pennsylvania has more than enough, yet other states do a lousy job preparing and finding educators. 3. "Rather than having a shortage of skills, millions of American workers have more skills than their jobs require. That is particularly true of college-educated people, who make up 30 percent of the population today, up from 10 percent in the 1960's. They often find themselves working in sales or as office administrators, or taking jobs in hotels and restaurants, or becoming carpenters, flight attendants and word processors." Yes, the author is correct that college is no guarantee of employment success. However, it's important to remember that usually our first or second job after college is a stepping stone. The labor market is fluid. And by the way, what's wrong with a college grad working in sales? I'd better not continue, there's smoke coming out of my ears. Other comments/thoughts about the article are welcome.