The unemployment facts we'd rather not face (REALITY: Many job applicants just aren't qualified)

CNNMoney ^ | 09/09/2011 | Geoff Colvin

[SeekAndFind]

It's a mystery that begs for a solution: Unemployment is the No. 1 issue in America -- yet virtually all business people I talk to complain that they can't find the workers they want. When President Obama presents his jobs agenda to the nation this evening, listen carefully for him to address this issue. If he doesn't, he's missing a large element of our problem. (Update, 9/9: The President didn't talk about this phenomenon in his speech, nor does his proposed American Jobs Act address it. But we have to face it, because it's a large element of America's economic problem.)

The mystery begins to clear up after taking a close look at the state of U.S. workers, especially young workers, who have the highest unemployment rate of all; among those aged 16 to 19, it's 25%. The harsh reality is that even when jobs are available, many of these job applicants aren't ready for them. They aren't getting hired because they often aren't worth hiring.

Nobody wants to talk about this now because it sounds like blaming the victim. And it's important to say what is obvious, that unqualified workers are far from the only factor in our miserably high level of unemployment. But it's also important not to ignore this factor just because confronting it is painful.

An alarming view of prospective young employees comes from the Defense Department, which has found that 75% of Americans aged 17 to 24 are not qualified to serve in the armed forces. There are three main reasons.

First is inadequate education. About one-quarter of the cohort haven't graduated from high school, and about 30% of the high school graduates who take the Armed Forces Qualification Test, a test of basic reading and math skills, fail it.

Second is criminality.

[Salgak]

No kidding. And HR shops aren’t helping: I’m constantly getting pinged on jobs that I simply lack the expertise and/or experience to do. Yes, I’m a very senior IT pro, but, as in any senior professional, my expertise is concentrated in certain areas.

Combine that with the general level of illiteracy and semi-literacy out there, and it’s a nightmare.

Example: I had a head-hunter actually argue with me, saying I had claimed to be a JAVA programmer. You tell me: the line he quoted said:

“Systems Administrator on a test and production JAVA development environment”.

Another thought I was a qualified software tester based on the same line. . .

We DEFINITELY need better than the average HR droid out there. . .

[kabar]

The latest data show 22.1 million immigrants holding jobs in the U.S. with an estimated 8 million being illegal aliens. By increasing the supply of labor between 1980 and 2000, immigration reduced the average annual earnings of native-born men by an estimated $1,700 or roughly 4 percent. Among natives without a high school education, who roughly correspond to the poorest tenth of the workforce, the estimated impact was even larger, reducing their wages by 7.4 percent. The reduction in earnings occurs regardless of whether the immigrants are legal or illegal, permanent or temporary. It is the presence of additional workers that reduces wages, not their legal status.

The Bureau of Labor statistics for August 2011 show a national unemployment rate of 9.1 percent, including 16.7 percent for blacks and 11.3 percent for Hispanics. 25 million Americans are seeking full-time employment. Despite the economic downturn, the U.S. continues to bring in 125,000 new, legal foreign workers a month. This includes new permanent residents (Green Cards) and long-term temporary visas and others who are authorized to take a job. This makes no sense.

[dfwgator]

To me, a good “programmer”, should also be a good business analyst and project manager....the programming part should only consume about 10% of their time, if they do good business analysis. “Heads Down” coders work in India.

[RegulatorCountry]

HR is where all the scheming political deadwood gravitates in any large corporation, and they’re the last to go when the company finally goes down.

[dfwgator]

One of the questions I always ask is “Tell me about the last programming/technical book you read.”

That usually weeds them out right there. I expect programmers today to keep up with the latest technologies, even if they don’t use them in their current job.

[Robert357]

bump for reference

[Tea Party Hobbit]

Young American workers can still stagger us with their abilities. But so many have fallen behind the demands of a modern economy that they can't get jobs. The problem won't be fixed quickly. Mission: Readiness calls for more and better early education, which is indeed highly effective -- but we won't see results for 15 or 20 years.

I don't have much hope for the next generation, because they'll be raised by the young adults of today.

[Hojczyk]

Welfare has replaced work.....when it was more profitable to be on welfare .people did not have to take a hard job ..landscaping ,, washing dishes...then we imported illegals who would do the work Americans did not have to do..because they were on welfare..

[wbill]

Buddy of mine is getting a startup off the ground. It's doing pretty well.

Was hanging out with him and a couple of his employees, when one made the comment that "There was too much paperwork, and they needed to get an HR person on staff."

Buddy's reply? "WHY!?! We're having FUN! Why would you want to bring in HR and ruin all of that?"

I like the guy, he's got his priorities straight.

[Brookhaven]

Which is why anyone still using a one page resume is shooting themselves in the foot.

Computer programs search through the text of resumes looking for keywords and phrases. It discards the resumes that don’t contain all the search keywords/phrases.

The solution? Keyword stuffing.

Use as many pages as you need (the more actually the better) and make sure your resume contains every keyword needed. If you are applying for a job, look at the job descritpion, and make sure every keyword/buzzword/technical-jargon used in the ad is somewhere in your resume. Even if you have to just tag it at the end under some heading like “Additional Skills”.

BTW, the other thing to remember is nobody prints out resumes anymore. The pull up a copy on a computer, which means the most important part of your resume is the top half of the first page. That’s all they can see on the computer screen, and if that doesn’t hook them they aren’t going to look at the rest of your resume.

Nodoby reads resumes anymore. They use a computer to filter resumes based on keyword, and GLANCE at the top half of the first page. If you’re looking for a job, those are the two areas you should concentrate on.

[algernonpj]

The problem I seem to find is my years of experience and past salary deter prospective employers from considering me. In a lot of cases, I know I fit the job description perfectly, but neither I nor the headhunters receive replies.

Before someone comes along to tell you to pull yourself up by your bootstraps, your problem is shared by many.

Ageism is rampant, and why hire an experienced American when you can hire an inexperienced 'guest worker' whose salary reflects the no or partial taxes they pay. Better yet offshore to a third world country where one and live well on 5-10K per year.

In tech fields one ages out between 35 and 40.

While there truly had been a decline in the quality of education and culture, this is only a part of the unemployment problem. No one mentions the hoards of proven qualified professionals with a great work ethic who are willing, proven, and able but can't find work of any kind.

Age Bias
GAO Report
Interesting graph here

[Vigilanteman]

I got acquainted with a young, very conservative couple who attended my daughter's high school graduation party. Really nice kids, high school sweethearts who put off marriage until they had graduated from college. He graduated from Carnegie Mellon, one of the best IT programs in the country, and could not find a job in the Pittsburgh area whereas his classmates from India with comparable grades were getting multiple offers.

The young man ended up taking a job in the Allentown area, going home only on weekends to be with his wife. Poor way to start a marriage.

Anyway, some of the IT companies in the Pittsburgh area got embarrassed big time when someone posted a You-Tube video of a seminar on how not to hire Americans which was held at a fancy hotel not far from the CMU campus. One of them finally offered him a job so he could live with his wife during the week.

There needs to be a surcharge on H1B workers hired from outside the United States. I'd say at least 10%-- 5% of which has to go to the H1B worker in the form of additional salary; 5% into an educational loan fund to train American workers. Once that happens, you will be surprised how quickly companies decide to hire Americans for IT positions.

[triumphant values]

I call BS. Look if they can find Chinese workers to do the jobs, they can find Americans.

I called "BS" too. It smelled like open immigration/outsourcing propaganda so I did a bit more sniffing on the author Geoffrey Colvin.

This came up as a quote of his when I Google "Geoffrey Colvin"+"immigration": The best solution for group one is simple: Eliminate the cap on H1-B visas, currently just 65,000 a year. That is hardly a radical notion. For nearly 40 years, until 1990, there was no cap.

These anti-national shills are so transparent.

[AEMILIUS PAULUS]

Report: "The mystery begins to clear up after taking a close look at the state of U.S. workers, especially young workers, who have the highest unemployment rate of all; among those aged 16 to 19, it's 25%"

Response: This age group keeps "popping up.! Kids in this age group should be in school and not working. Of course they should have a high unemployment rate!

[algernonpj]

When my company was looking for software engineer consultants (contracting positions), it worked with various recruiting agencies. For some strange reason — every single potential consultant we interviewed were either from India, Pakistan or the Philippines ( all on H1B visas ).

After 8 interviews, we eventually hired a Pakistani on H1B.

I can’t help but ask aloud — WHERE THE HECK ARE AMERICANS?

You weren't being given their resumes! They are being screened out; many recruiting agencies are currently run by foreign nationals with token American front people.

[kalee]

It’s a scam.
http://salon.glenrose.net/?view=plink&id=3889

[SeekAndFind]

RE: Anyway, some of the IT companies in the Pittsburgh area got embarrassed big time when someone posted a You-Tube video of a seminar on how not to hire Americans which was held at a fancy hotel not far from the CMU campus. One of them finally offered him a job so he could live with his wife during the week.

_______________________________________________________________________

Let me get this striaght -— You have to go to the exgtent of EMBARASSING a company publicly for them to hire an American?

The question stil needs to be answered — WHAT MAKES AN AMERICAN SO UNATTRACTIVE THAT AMERICAN COMPANIES WON’T HIRE THEM? Is it the salary? Is it the benefits that costs them? what is it? AT LEAST TELL US PUBLICLY SO THAT WE WILL ALL KNOW.

I personally want to know why there were NO AMERICAN APPLICANTS when one consulting position was open in my company. Maybe I should talk to the higher ups in my company as I am a mere techie and not a bean counter.

It has to be associated with cost.

[Pecos]

How can you possibly make such claims? All we have to do is look at the fantastic success of the Soviet Union. /s/

[Tijeras_Slim]

So I guess my opening a copy of Fortran 77 once doesn’t impress you.

[FatherFig1o155]

Same with the advertising business. All the jobs out there are paying half of what it was just a few years ago.

We can’t outsource, though — it’s too specialized. But because our unemployment rate is somewhere north of 30%, there are people who’ll take the cut.

It’s still more than an unemployment check.