Pedro Nicolaci da Costa — Fed rebel warns businesses to stop 'whining' about a shortage of workers

It’s an all-too common refrain among US corporations: we have jobs available, but simply can’t find qualified workers to fill them.

Economists, including top Federal Reserve officials, lend credibility to this dubious claim by arguing there is a "skills gap" among US workers that is preventing firms from finding employees with the right backgrounds.

However, ample research and basic common sense suggests that wage stagnation, which has dominated the US job landscape in recent decades, is a symptom of an anemic labor market, not a fully recovered one.

Credit to Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari for pointing that out during a speech to business leaders on Monday.

"If you're not raising wages, then it just sounds like whining," he told a group of business people at a Rotary Club meeting in Sioux Falls, S.D., according to the Washington Examiner.

Business insider
Fed rebel warns businesses to stop 'whining' about a shortage of workers
Pedro Nicolaci da Costa

ht Brad DeLong at Grasping Reality
 

Dean Baker — The Skills Gap that Always Explains Unemployment

Donald Trump went to Wisconsin today to tout the virtues of apprenticeship programs, which he claimed would give workers the skills they need to fill available jobs. Fortunately, the NYT had a good piece by Noam Scheiber that pointed out there is little evidence to support the view that the economy is suffering from a serious skills shortage.

The skills shortage is a recurring theme which businesses and pundit types routinely use to blame unemployment on workers rather than a lack of jobs in the economy....

Well, I would not say "always." There are other excuses for unemployment owing to lack of jobs.

Skills gap, lack of education, preference for leisure, wage rigidity, laziness — let's see, did I miss any?

This doesn't imply that I think all apprenticeship programs are bogus. They have a role to play, too. Apprenticeship is an ancient form of education that has proved itself with results.

Beat the Press
The Skills Gap that Always Explains Unemployment
Dean Baker | Co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, D.C