This flash animation maps out the unemployment rate across the US over the past two years.
While it doesn’t confirm anything we don’t already know (people lost their jobs, unemployment is systemic and epidemic) it does ironically point to something.
People need to be reeducated and retrained for the changing face of the US workforce. While the “Educate to Innovate” campaign focuses on the future,we need results now for all those out of work. Propping up failed business models and offering handouts does not make for a renewable and revitalized economy.
Everyday I see dozens of jobs in the software and web programming field scroll by. I’ve talked to companies that are looking to hire dozens to hundreds of new employees, right now. Companies that need to grow their employee base by orders of magnitude over the next few years to keep up with the growing cyber security threat.
I know many people who would be golden if they had programming experience, traditional print designers that would be snapped up in a minute if they could do web design.
Why can’t millions be poured into creating a retrained workforce that would be immediately employable, which in turn means immediate paychecks, immediate tax contributions, and people buying. Hello revitalized economy.
Hell, the Cash for Clunkers money would have paid for millions of people to go to their local community college and pound out an AA in web design or computer programming – all the skills needed.
I fail to understand why this wouldn’t work. Anyone care to enlighten me?
Tags: programming, training, unemployment, web design
Because it’s hard. And folks want jobs straight up given to them. Not sure anyone knows what the whole tighten your belt thing entails. “You mean I have to train for this stuff before I gets me a job? Naw, I’ll just continue to bitch about illegals stealing all the jobs that I’d never take anyways. Much easier. Oh, look football is on.”
I personally think it’s about technology growing pains. I could be wrong, but it seems to me when life was less techie, you could graduate from college in many fields and not have to re-educate yourself before retiring. Now, tech is constantly changing and (supposedly) becoming more efficient. Jobs change and so do businesses priorities. Add to that the ever expanding retirement date, plus everything being manufactured overseas and…surprise, everyone needs to go back to school. In addition, re-education doesn’t always work as employers want younger workers so they can pay them shit. Also, there is the expectation that the younger applicant will be more technologically adept than an older one. Trust me, this happens more than you think. Personally, I don’t fault people in their 40′s or 50′s not wanting to go back to school. It’s a pain in the ass and I feel for all the hard working people who busted their asses all their lives only to find that their jobs have gone away. However, going back to school is better than eating dog food and living in a box.