Jobs Mismatch

"I lift my lamp beside the Golden Door." -- Emma Lazarus poem, inscribed on the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor, welcoming newcomers to the land of opportunity.

"Go West, young man, and grow up with the country." --  Horace Greeley, urging Easterners to seek opportunity on the American frontier.

   One of the biggest problems facing America is a lack of jobs. In Europe, there are thousands of high-tech jobs unfilled because of a lack of skills. In Washington, the White House is increasing its campaign to urge Congress to extend unemployment benefits, warning that nearly 5 million workers will lose that help, together with another 9 million family members they support. Moreover, if Congress fails to act, "it could cost our economy 240,000 jobs this year," the White House posted on its Twitter feed.
   
   Among the angry responses: "Maybe when some of them lose unemployment insurance they will quit sitting at home and GET A JOB!"
   Another: "Come to Texas. Plenty of high paying jobs here."

   As indicated above, however, there are also plenty of high paying technology jobs going unfilled in Europe. All this illustrates a basic problem in labor economics: The mismatch of workers and jobs, and this can happen for several reasons.
   1/ Too many workers and not enough jobs, as in a recession.
   2/ Too many jobs and not enough workers, as in boom times.
   3/ A geographical mismatch, when available jobs are far away, and workers may not be willing to relocate.
   4/ A skills mismatch, when people seek work, but don't have the skills needed. Or conversely, jobs are available but workers are overqualified for low-skill jobs and employers are reluctant to hire such workers.

   A major reason people came to America has long been the availability of jobs, skilled or unskilled. Today, however, college graduates take jobs in fast-food restaurant outlets because there is little demand for their skills. Engineers are needed in new oil field operations in the Far West, and offer high pay as an incentive to persuade workers to relocate.
   But if high-tech computer programmers are in demand in Europe, perhaps the migration flow will reverse itself, and young workers will go eastward, and grow up with new industries.

   Even so, that won't satisfy those who worry about an "immigration problem," since many newcomers take the low-skill, low-pay jobs that well educated Americans don't want and won't take. And if highly skilled Americans go where the jobs are, in other countries, that will only worsen an already fragile economy as the population becomes largely one of low skilled, poorly educated workers struggling for low pay jobs.
   It has already happened to major cities in America's industrial heartland as skilled workers moved to the suburbs and companies followed them. And as manufacturing and technology industries grow in other countries, perhaps skilled American workers will go where the jobs are.
   For many decades, people came to America because this is where the jobs have been. If the jobs are no longer here, people will go elsewhere.