Seems as though every month for the past year or so, there is more good news on the employment scene. As of October, 2018, we have the largest number of Americans employed in our history. Couple this with 3-plus percent GDP growth, continued decline in unemployment, smallest unemployment for African Americans in history, wage increases, more full-time jobs, etc. All good news. So, what is the looming crisis?
The pending crisis is a shortage of qualified workers. I have already heard some commentators talking about it, but I have yet to hear anyone explain WHY there is a shortage or WHAT we should be doing about it. Let me take a shot at answering the why and what questions. Warning, a lot of you are not going to like my answer to why. As always, you are entitled to your own opinions but not your own facts.
The US military did not meet its recruiting goals for FY 2018. Not good. October, 2018, Mission: Readiness, a bipartisan organization of 750 retired generals and admirals, released a report detailing the “dire straits facing military recruiters.”
“71 PERCENT OF ALL YOUNG PEOPLE IN THE U.S. BETWEEN THE AGES OF 17 AND 24 DO NOT QUALIFY FOR MILITARY SERVICE.” This statistic is true, disturbing, disgusting and disappointing.
Before you say, “well, that surely must not be North Carolina”, the report goes on to point out, “In North Carolina an estimated 72 percent of the population is ineligible to join the military due to being overweight, lacking adequate education or having a history of crime or drug use.”
In the U.S. Army there are about 190 different type jobs, called military occupational specialties; infantryman, medic, truck driver, military police, aviation mechanic, supply, you get the picture. In North Carolina, 23% of the HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATES, lack the cognitive skills to be trained in ANY ONE of the 190 specialties.
We are closing in on the answer to WHY there will soon be a crisis of “qualified” workers to support the booming economy. Of the approximately 100,000 North Carolina students who graduated high school in 2018, about 23,000 of them could not qualify to enter the military which begs the question, do you want them working for you in your civilian company? Probably not.
A close friend of mine teaches remedial math at a North Carolina community college. She starts them off with 4th grade math and they do not all pass. What I am leading up to is the introduction of an ugly term, functionally illiterate. I don’t hear educators using the term or see the government issuing functionally illiterate statistics. But if it walks and quacks like a duck, perhaps we should call it a duck.
And this discussion does not even consider the 20% of entering high school freshmen who drop out of school. Across the country 7000, yes thousand not hundred, drop out of school EVERY DAY.
This is a sad conclusion but it is reality and it is one of the reasons the US world ranking in education is 20th to 35th depending on what you are specifically comparing; for example, the US stays near the bottom in math among the top 35 industrialized nations.
When an employer begins hiring with “high-school-graduate” as search criterion they then have to look further to determine if that individual can actually read, write and do basic math. We have a big problem.
So now, WHAT do we do about it? The long-term fix will take a generation. I have a plan to do this but that is a subject for another day. We need a quick fix to keep the economy hot.
Historically, we have worked this type problem with government-run training programs. Also, historically they have been a complete disaster. For example,
the iconic job training government program, vintage 1960s Great Society, is Job Corps: Annual budget, $1.7 billion…. $15,000-$45,000 per student…. “Job Corps doesn’t work,” said one teacher who quit over on-campus violence and drug abuse….. April, 2018, the Labor Department inspector general concluded “Job Corps does not demonstrate beneficial job training outcomes”….Labor Secretary Acosta, “Job Corps requires fundamental reform.” How much more time and money do we need to waste?
The quick solution is to turn to the private sector. Two possibilities: 1) privately-run schools for some number of type jobs; for example, plumbers, carpenters, electricians. Income is from placement fees, similar to how employment agencies charge. 2) job-specific training run by individual companies to fill their own vacancies. They would get a government tax break for operating their own training programs.
Education without standards is a failed system. We have a failed system.