If the younger generation is our future

Then it sure does look bleak.

BEDFORD, Ohio — Factory owners have been adding jobs slowly but steadily since the beginning of the year, giving a lift to the fragile economic recovery. And because they laid off so many workers — more than two million since the end of 2007 — manufacturers now have a vast pool of people to choose from.

Yet some of these employers complain that they cannot fill their positions. Plenty of people are applying for the jobs. The problem, the companies say, is a mismatch between the kind of skilled workers needed and the ranks of the unemployed.

Now they are looking to hire people who can operate sophisticated computerized machinery, follow complex blueprints and demonstrate higher math proficiency than was previously required of the typical assembly line worker.

“That’s where you’re seeing the pain point,” said Baiju R. Shah, chief executive of BioEnterprise, a nonprofit group in Cleveland trying to turn the region into a center for medical innovation. “The people that are out of work just don’t match the types of jobs that are here, open and growing.”

Here in this suburb of Cleveland, supervisors at Ben Venue Laboratories, a contract drug maker for pharmaceutical companies, have reviewed 3,600 job applications this year and found only 47 people to hire at $13 to $15 an hour, or about $31,000 a year.

All candidates at Ben Venue must pass a basic skills test showing they can read and understand math at a ninth-grade level. A significant portion of recent applicants failed, and the company has been disappointed by the quality of graduates from local training programs. It is now struggling to fill 100 positions.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38050439/ns/business-the_new_york_times/

Give the teachers another pay increase. That will solve the problem!

Interestingly, I work in an industry where a good portion of the jobs, require one only have a willingness to work. We can't find people who are willing to work. We recently hire a person who missed more time than he worked. We had another who couldn't seem to make it to work when the work day was gong to a difficult one or busy one.

I have talked to many employers who will tell you point blank that the vast majority of people they interview, just don't want to work. They want a paycheck, but they don't want to work.

Yes, Stephanie, you are right, giving teachers another pay raise is exactly what the politicians will do, but that isn't going to solve anything. And even though my wife and daughter teach, I get just as disgusted as you do, about the throwing money at the problem.

In my humble opinion, it is time to throw the self esteem bull crap out and start holding people especially kids to a level of expectation. If they don't live up to the expectations, too bad, so sad. Additionally, discipline needs to go back into the schools in a big way. If a kid is going to act out then his butt needs to face the consequences and if he persists in acting out, his/her butt is out of school and becomes mommy and daddy's problem. Finally, the government dependence safety net needs to be gone. If you don't want to work, guess what you don't eat.

I once worked for an aluminum smelter where the contracted amount of work could be performed in a scant four hours. If you finished your work in three hours, say, you could hide out the remainder of the shift and there was nothing they could do to you. Nothing.

Those days are gone forever. Even Obama cannot bring back the high paying jobs that required nothing. The American workforce may be ruined in spite of him...