The US workforce is the most highly trained in the world. I know people with certifications stacked upon certifications and qualifications out the yazoo who were laid off.
Some people mistakenly focus solely on wages and conclude, also erroneously, that we cannot get back jobs unless we agree to Chinese salaries.
Your error is just the opposite: you ignore the wages entirely and focus solely on productivity. Please see post #33 if you care.
More importantly, you somehow assume that certifications are a judgment of the person's competitiveness. It is not enough to be productive: one should be productive in the currently desired industry (think of all those experts in producing tape-recorders --- would you hire them today?).
We can't deduce what someone is worth by observing that person. The idea that one can deduce what wages a person should receive is due to Marx. This fact alone should disturb a conservative finding that he thinks similarly.
The determinant of our wages is the market (not some certifications or even the resume). Sometimes it speaks in our favor, such as when computer programmers with no education were getting huge wages, for decades due to shortage. Sometimes it does the opposite, and we go through hardships. But when the market speaks there is nothing we can do but listen.