President Blames Unemployment On Lack Of Tech Skills

IEEE ^

[carton253]

It's not true...

[N3WBI3]

I am disgusted there is no way I will vote bush..

[dirtboy]

If your employer can find someone to do your job for less, you need to make yourself more valuable.

The H1-B visa program is based on a lie - that there is a shortage of tech workers. And, above and beyond that, do we want this country to completely lose the concept of a middle class, which is the primary component of economic and political stability? Other countries keep up barriers as we lower ours. It's kinda like being in a boxing match and lowering your guard and hoping the other guy doesn't clean your clock - it ain't ever gonna happen.

[holdmuhbeer]

If your employer can find someone to do your job for less, you need to make yourself more valuable

Ok I'll just ask my employer to cut my salary to 6k a year so I can be more attractive to employ. Is that what you're doing?

[fuente]

Keep this up and I'll vote for Perot--AGAIN!

[dfwgator]

It's not just about learning new skills, there has to be new projects to apply those skills. For the most part, companies now are getting by with older technology, that is more mature. They've gotten burned enough times by "bleeding edge" technology.

[dfwgator]

I hope it isn't true.

[dirtboy]

He used the technical field to illustrate the unemployed worker training program. That's it. So, please don't over-react to this article

So let's see how this works. We use tax dollars to train manufacturing workers how to become low-level tech workers ... and then they'll graduate and not be able to get a decent job because they've all been outsourced overseas. So I guess we'll then train them how to be Wal-Mart greeters.

[Mr. Bird]

Why do all of you techies think it's all about IT? Here's the question that was asked. The "offshoring" issue was a part of it:

They're concerned about jobs going overseas, that technology is taking over jobs. And these people are finding difficulty finding work. And although you're recommitted yourself to your tax cut policy, do you have any ideas or any plans within the administration of what you might do for these people who feel like there are fundamental changes happening in the work force and in the economy?

She was talking about the chronically unemployed, for anyone who was listening. For all anyone knows, she was talking about textile jobs going overseas; technology in the form of robotics and automation replacing union labor, etc.

You guys see "technology" and "jobs" or "work force" and think it's all about H1-B and Indian programmers. Sheesh.

His response was adequate, as far as I'm concerned. He said community colleges should be recognizing employment trends and training people accordingly. Right now, they are not. They are still selling IS certificate programs without regard to opportunity, and are inflating demand with ridiculous promises.

[dirtboy]

Ok I'll just ask my employer to cut my salary to 6k a year so I can be more attractive to employ.

And I'm sure your mortgage company will follow suit and cut your mortage by 90 percent. As will GMAC on your car loan.

[Mr. Jeeves]

Bush is just repeating what industry leaders are telling him, which really translates to: "We don't feel like paying Americans with up to date skill sets what they are worth in the market, so we have to go to India, where the same skill sets can be bought cheaper."

I can't repeat it enough: corporate America hates IT. They consider it a disparate service, like the janitorial staff, instead of an important part of the business; they hate having to deal with it; they hate having to hire and manage difficult IT people; and they hate spending the money to maintain an in-house IT presence. They feel they were gouged by IT salary levels during the tech boom, and outsourcing IT now is just a way of getting their own back and disposing of people they never wanted to hire in the first place.

[MEG33]

Would you like to verify this or are you quick to make a decision without further study.

[holdmuhbeer]

And I'm sure your mortgage company will follow suit and cut your mortage by 90 percent. As will GMAC on your car loan.

lmao, I can only dream.

[Southack]

"I fully understand what you're saying. In other words..."

"Bush just lost several thousand tech worker votes with this line." - Dirtboy

All that Bush did was to rephrase what the reporter asked him. People do that every day simply to insure that they have fully understood a question being asked of them.

And if several thousand tech workers can't understand that simple fact, then they aren't smart enough to be employed in America.

[dfwgator]

Another thing is that emphasis on new skills has led to a lot of "resume-driven" design. We saw this in the Java world where companies were driven to purchase expensive application servers using Enterprise Java Beans, when simple servlets and JDBC access would have done just fine.

[dirtboy]

You guys see "technology" and "jobs" or "work force" and think it's all about H1-B and Indian programmers. Sheesh.

But, the point is, we'll train those laid-off manufacturing workers to be low-level techies - and they STILL won't get work because we're either bringing in H1-B visa workers or companies are outsourcing the very jobs they're training for.

This isn't about the workers. It's about policies in this country that are expediting the rampant hemmoraging of decent-paying jobs and the destruction of the middle class.

[ffusco]

Good for you. Who are you going to vote for? Mr. Ketchup, Tiny Tim, Mumbling Joe, Imaginery friend or Whatsisname?

[Willie Green]

There's more air in between those ears than meets the eye!

A good case can be made that it's actually a vacuum.

[dfwgator]

It's part of this overall mantra of outsourcing everything that is not part of your core business.

[hedgetrimmer]

Thats a _really_ offensive thing for him to say, knowing how our own _federal_ government is weighting trade in favor of communist governments.