While the U.S. economy added fewer new jobs in December than expected, there is evidence that the economic expansion that began in 2009 will continue into 2018.
Still, the number of new jobs added would be more impressive if not for the growing mismatch between the skills American employers need and the skills American workers have.Genesis10 CEO Harley Lippman addressed the job numbers in a VOA news story, US Economy Ends Year with Modest Gains.
In it, Lippman said that there are hundreds of thousands of IT positions not being filled and he points to the financial crisis of 2008 as a reason. The financial crisis, he explained, put increased pressure on companies to cut costs.
“Training programs went out the door after the Great Recession and companies are reluctant to bring them back,” Lippman said. “This will have to be addressed one way or another.”
As a solution, Lippman suggested lawmakers create incentives to train workers. Meanwhile, he said that the search to find adequately trained workers will become more acute as the pool of available workers continues to shrink.
Voice of America (VOA) is the largest U.S. international broadcaster, providing news and information in more than 40 languages to an estimated weekly audience of 236.8 million people.