The Unassuming Economist

In an article for the Atlantic, Frederick Hess of the American Enterprise Institute links the problem of structural unemployment with the lack of quality job training/workforce development. He writes “economist Prakash Loungani of the International Monetary Fund has estimated that 25 percent of the unemployed are out of work today due to skill-job mismatches. Georgetown’s Harry Holzer has calculated that today’s unemployment rate of 9.1 percent would be nearer to 8 percent if a majority of these jobs were filled (…) Fact is, America’s community colleges, job training, and workforce development are a mess. Community colleges suck up nearly $36 billion in taxpayer subsidies to provide training of uncertain quality, retain a balky and inconvenient academic calendar, and frequently do a lousy job of linking their instruction to local workforce needs (…) it can be hard for workers seeking retraining to find convenient, cost-effective, high-quality options (..) Absent high-quality retraining, it’s easy for workers in dying industries to get stuck, for their skills to atrophy, and for their networks and work habits to erode.”