Workers Don't Have the Right Skills? That's BS

Read Krugman's "Workers Don't Have the Right Skills? That's BS"

"Structural” unemployment is a fake problem, which mainly serves as an excuse for not pursuing real solutions.

Creative Destruction not so creative

"This is important because Economists habitually downplay the difficulty of finding a new job, choosing to see shakeups as good for the economy and in the long run, for the employee, who'll no doubt just learn new skills in order to better compete in the new economy. Such consideration flies in the face of reality, as the IMF report shows. Of course, the IMF is a well-known Marxist organization, so I guess you have to take it with a grain of salt.    "  - Ezra Klein

Ezra Klein - Two graphs that should really scare us

Unemployment: Boeing Lays Off Only Guy Who Knows How To Keep Wings On Plane

 A sign of the future that awaits us. The Onion has foretold actual business decisions before (witness the 4 bladed razor).    

Boeing Lays Off Only Guy Who...

CHICAGO—With the airline industry continuing to suffer under the ongoing recession, the Boeing Company was forced Monday to lay off Al Freedman, the only guy left at the corporation who knows how to keep wings from falling off planes.

   

Shouldn't High Unemployment = Less Work To Do?

Productivity, a better future....Dave Johnson writes:

Seeing the Forest: Shouldn't High Unemployment = Less Work To Do?

Source: www.seeingtheforest.com

"Simple question: have we reached a point where machines and computers leave us with less work to do? If so it can mean a lot of people are left without jobs and incomes, losing their homes and health, while the rest have our wages dragged ever downward. Or we can make some changes in who gets what for what, and every one of us ends up better off."  Continued..

Unemployment in U.S. vs. Europe

Anytime someone tries to point out how wonderfully productive the US economy is compared with Europe, ostensibly because of less restrictive labor laws, and points to the ostensibly low US unemployment rate, remember to pull out the Labor Force Participation Rate (which corrects for the unemployment rate's not showing long term unemployed):
Current stats for US: http://data.bls.gov/PDQ/servlet/SurveyOutputServlet?data_tool=latest_numbers&series_id=LNS11300000
As of July 2007, the U.S. is at 66.1.

OECD stats for 1999

Country	Labor Force Participation Rate
Sweden	75.7
France	68.5
Finland	73.7
U.K.	76.0

I'll try to get more current OECD stats.