unemployement, a possible cause.

U mean, if thay go to school, carefully study fonetic spelling, and learn the job skills ?





David

I'd guess that using fonetic spelling would decrease their hire-ability leaving them among the unemployed statistics. Perhaps David you've had different experiences when communicating in the legal system.

Yes. And the problem isn't always a lack of education. Seems like within any identifiable trade or profession there are subspecialties that can't be filled except by the person that has been doing it, and that person is also not qualified for anything else within the general trade or profession - without a long period of what might be regarded as an apprenticeship.

I knew a guy that was making a career/trade change to truck driver. What had he been doing before that? Why, he ran a convoluter! Really great field, but not in universal demand.

Another cause of unemployement is people not having jobs.

Thay gotta convince the recruiters that thay r creative n innovative!


I began use of fonetic spelling after I retired from the practice of law.





David

not much demand for practicing lawyers using fonetic spelling - the shame of it

They could do their little Latin gems in fonics.

I've read that, probably posted on it before, and have no link to give at hand.

What jobs? China, and India got a few of our industries (e.g. software developing and customer service) that we had a corner on.

The problem as I see it is that the job market is changing too fast for normal people to keep up in terms of their precise qualifications. Here is the best fix as I see it:

(1) Companies need to be willing to invest in new hires who have talent, regardless of what diplomas they carry. There should be paid training programs. (I guess we need non-compete clauses in contracts after all.) The industry I am thinking about entering which appears to offer this is insurance. The actuarial track seems to provide the best chance at a steady job for someone like myself, given that I've just earned degrees in Mathematics and Economics. They have a series of gruelling exams to screen out the unqualified.

(2) Schools need to focus on teaching things like (a) the ability to learn new concepts and apply them quickly in real-life situations; (b) excellence in all forms of communication; (c) ability to work in groups; etc. My school failed me on all counts, because the material it taught was so trivial that I was never forced to improve in any of those 3 areas. (I'm wandering around on-line at the moment in an effort to improve in those areas.) There also needs to be more mathematical proficiency throughout the economy, with the exact amount depending on what field you go into.

(3) Sites like this one may prove to be part of the solution as well, by helping inform people looking for work about what kinds of jobs are available.

One of the reasons for the high unemployment rate is that there are simply so many people for the few jobs that need doing. Each of those countries has more than a billion.

The biggest problem with unemployment is that N. Americans thought manufacturing jobs were beneath them. You can't run a country on service jobs alone. Then again, when one sector, namely banking, is a crooked as they've turned out to be, and those services were garnering massive fees for little work or value, the system had to find balance some where and the average worker is now paying the price.

So you're saying unions were the problem? N. American workers should worked for the Chinese are currently getting? They should have put up with the same labour conditions Chinese workers now put up with?

Foreign competition eroded our manufacturing base, because foreign labour was cheaper.

--> should have worked

Wow, you have an active imagination. What else did I say?

Sure foreign workers are cheaper, so are many of the products they produce as well. However, if you ship all your jobs to foreign shores you do that with the profits too. Any wonder the US is owned by China???

It may have taken a few years, but the unemployed during the last big recession (end of 70's and lasting about 7, 8 years) learned a lot about job-retrain. College and/or adult education, and it was generally provided by grants or the company doing the hiring.

Obama wants to improve education, build or repair old schools but at a much lower age level. I don't think the problem lies there, myself, but maybe I haven't seen what he speaks about, that is, his way of constantly saying our kids will be behind in schooling compared to other nations if we don't improve "education."

Okay, but short of having our workers labour under the same conditions and for the same pay as the Chinese, how were our manufacturers supposed to compete with China?

I see only two ways we could have kept those jobs:
(1) protectionist tariffs on imports;
(2) wage cuts for domestic workers.

The world is a competitive place ,and free market competition tends to level large differences between nations and regions that engage in it. For decades Asian and African nations hobbled their economies through various ill-conceeived attempts to manage growth and social welfare (as the ruling elite conceived of them). Now that those structures have collapsed in many areas and free market competition has become more widespread, we find ourselves being beaten at our own game - just as we earlier too the manufacturing initiative away from Europe, others are taking it from us. It isn't all bad - the scourge of poverty is decreasing in the world, even though more challenges for us are a result of it. If we are wise and adaptable we will thrive. If we succomb to those who wish for managed outcomes and authoritarian redistributionist policies, then we will be the loosers.

No, instead of supporting stores like Walmart or the dollar store that don't pay a decent wage, consumers could suck it up and pay what products and people are worth.

Well, if you're looking for an argument from me, then I'm afraid you're in for a bit of a disappointment.

There is nothing in Economics (as I learned it) that says consumers can't do exactly that if they want to. I guess that is an "Option #3". I've just never seen it happen consistently.