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Why are people out of work? Is it because there aren t enoughjobs, or because people aren t qualified for the openings thatexist? Democrats tend to favor the not-enough-work theory,while many Republicans lean more to the unqualified-workerhypothesis. Bloomberg Businessweek s Matthew Phillips waded intothe debate last month with a good piece called The False Theory of the Growing Jobs Mismatch. Now, economic research published June 6 by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago [PDF] concludes that evidence for a skills mismatch is limited. Write senior economists Jason Faberman and BhashkarMazunder: If there is a skills mismatch in the U.S. labormarket, it may be most significant for workers with mediumskills. I asked Faberman and Mazunder what they meant by jobs that requiremedium skills, since it s not in the paper. Here s the writtenanswer: Most occupations in this zone require training invocational schools, related on-the-job experience, or anassociate s degree. Some may require a bachelor s degree. Examples of such jobs? People who install and repair electronic equipment on motorvehicles Lathe and turning machine tool setters and operators Dental assistants Electricians Fish and game wardens Legal secretaries Personnel recruiters Recreation workers That s not to say there are shortages in any of these particularoccupations. Faberman and Mazunder created an index of labor demand based onthe number of online help-wanted ads for different occupations ascompiled by the Conference Board. An increase in want ads makes thedemand index go up. They found, predictably, that the demand indexhas been rising since the end of the recession in 2009. But it hasrisen the most for medium-skilled occupations. Demand for thehighest- and lowest-skilled occupations grew rapidly in 2010 butwas growing very slowly by the end of last year, when the researchended. It s interesting to think about why there could be shortages forsome kinds of labor and not others. As Faberman and Mazunder pointout, labor economist Robert Shimer of the University of Chicagoinvented the concept that people live on different labor islands. His islands represent different subsets of theeconomy, distinguished by location, skill requirements, and so on.Each person can search for work only on his or her own island. Someislands have a surplus of jobs, while some have a surplus ofworkers. Shimer s island metaphor is useful. The way to reduce skillsmismatch, following Shimer s logic, is to build bridges betweenislands make it easier for workers to change cities, for example,or learn a new skill. But if the big problem is simply aneconomywide lack of work, journeying to another island won t helpa bit. If the Chicago Fed analysis is correct, that s probably themain problem right now. We are high quality suppliers, our products such as Stone Mosaic Tile , Rustic Ceramic Tiles Manufacturer for oversee buyer. To know more, please visits Ceramic Mosaic Tiles.
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