Why do so many politicians put forth the myth

[XemaSab]

that people are unemployed because they lack job skills?

I would guess that most people who are unemployed TOTALLY have job skills--hell, knowing how to clean a toilet is a job skill--but there's just an obvious glut of labor all the way up and down the line. Once you have someone in your office picking up the phone, another person cleaning the place, a third person sorting the mail, a fourth person mowing the lawn, a fifth person doing the payroll, a sixth person handling the legal issues, a seventh person being teh CEO, and so forth, YOU JUST DON'T NEED MORE PEOPLE.

So why does this myth persist?

[Fumesucker]

1. It's a way of avoiding the issues around the lack of jobs..

Getting a job always has been about who you know to a big extent, who knows more people than a politician?

They really don't get it because they have never lacked personally for a job.

[Vincardog]

8. What he ^ said

[shraby]

2. Because the think it will take the stink off them for not doing

something constructive about jobs. If people don't have the "job skills" then why are so many who ARE working, doing menial jobs that are below their education and job skills level?

[Davis_X_Machina]

3. Doctors exaggerate...

...the efficacy of marginal treatments all the time, lest their patients despair.

Parents tell their ugly children a beautiful personality will in the end make it all o.k.

For a handful, the advice is sound, and for the rest -- well, do you want to be the honest doctor, or parent, of a bunch of suicides?

Why would politicians be any different?

[Orrex]

4. Probably the same reason that a lot of people on DU put forth that same myth

The best explanation, as far as I can tell, is that it provides a quick and easy answer for a complex problem, and that kind of answer is attractive to people whose preferences or agendas favor simple, soundbyte answers.

Here on DU, it also allows the claimant to elevate himself at the expense of others:

"I have a job."
"Unemployed people lack the necessary skills."

Ergo "I am skilled."


As you note, it's a myth.

[booley]

5. because it's easier then the truth

that capitalism requires a certain percentage to be unemployed. And even if it didn't, capitalists would still want it since it normally drives down labor costs.

Desperate people are so much more likely to put up with shit jobs.

[Overseas]

6. Because they want to push more "free trade" deals that will export more jobs.

US workers don't have the skills to survive on $400 per month.

[XemaSab]

18. If I didn't have housing and bills

I could deal with $400 a month.

With teh housing and bills, notsomuch.

[phantom power]

7. It's a variation on the Calvinist "poor people are only poor because they deserve it" theme.

[XemaSab]

17. So much word

n/t

[tama]

9. Because

it is a basic human tendency to hate those we have wronged.

[treestar]

10. Is it a myth?

What are the statistics?

As the job market has become more varied, it is indeed possible that skills don't match available jobs.

Except for laborers or jobs so basic they don't require much training.

[Orrex]

11. If skills were in such high demand, employers would be disproportionately hiring older workers

Older workers, having been in the workforce for decades, have amassed skillsets that simply aren't available to someone fresh out of school. If employers were truly looking to hire skilled workers, they'd be tapping the enormous resource of unemployed and underemployed 40- and 50-somethings.

And I'm not talking solely about skillsets pertaining to cutting edge, brand new fields, either; even well-established fields like economics and management are ignoring the more seasoned workers in favor cheaper, less experienced young people.

That's not meant to disparage younger workers, either; if anything, it's a condemnation of companies that maintain hypocritical hiring practices:

"We can't hire you unless you have skills X, Y and Z. But if you have those skills, you'd better be young and inexpensive."

[orpupilofnature57]

15. Exactly !it's not skills they seek but situations ,namely desperate ones.

[treestar]

16. When it comes to that (and I'm older)

It may be more the lack of flexibility some people may show when older.

I know I have a resistance to some of this new-fangled stuff!

My suggestion is to go in for business yourself when older - the big companies can't stop that and you can compete with them with more personalized service and the experience is a good selling point.

[readmoreoften]

29. Right-wing D alert!

:eyes:

Any right-wing meme, and you're sure to be promoting through the guise of "calming and rationally" giving it a fair hearing.

[WinkyDink]

12. To make the employed scorn the unemployed. Divide and conquer.

[provis99]

13. why would it matter if they had no job skills anyways?

It should be the role of business to train them.

We've really fallen as a society as we have changed from one where businesses train their employees, to one where people are expected to retrain themselves over and over.

If unemployment were at full employment levels, then businesses would start training employees again.

[Zanzoobar]

20. Business used to train people

Indentured servitude was a common practice in this country. I'm not sure I'd like that.

Oh! You mean for freeeeeee!

[Lydia Leftcoast]

21. Businesses DID once train people

They didn't hire "managers" out of college. They hired "management trainees." They'd put them on short-term assignments in various departments and pay them to take night classes in basic accounting and management.

[Zanzoobar]

23. There's that awful pendulum again!

[Kat45]

26. Right. But today's busniesses expect

anyone they hire to already know how to do every single thing they might ever have to do in the position, preferably at an expert level. They want the new hire to be productive almost immediately; don't have it down fully within a month, you're gone.

[orpupilofnature57]

14. Ambiguous reasoning is the only way they know ,getting us to buy it

is their only Agenda ,ergo they do work together toward a common goal,unfortunately for the most of us.

[Qutzupalotl]

19. I don't think they're saying they lack ALL job skills,

just the ones that match the openings in their locale. It doesn't help a computer programmer if the only openings in their city are in nursing, for instance.

[XemaSab]

24. I would wager that Obama is a terrible

surgeon, engineer, avian biologist, medical transcriptionist, house painter, physicist, fruit picker, and fry cook.

I think that people with a decent skill set should be employable SOMEWHERE in the country.

It's just not happening in this economy.

[Qutzupalotl]

27. Correct, but with home ownership up recently

(current crisis notwithstanding), moving to find a good job is not always a viable option. Lower home ownership has one benefit to the economy, in that more people can relocate to fill the open positions that match their skills.

[upi402]

22. oh Oh I know -pick me PICK ME!!

Because they've sold out US workers to their corporate masters and THERE ARE NO JOBS anymore.

[Kat45]

25. Your office example has one too many worker.

In this era of corporate downsizing and expected multitasking, they would have one employee to pick up the phone AND sort the mail--and doing lots of other stuff as well.

[JNinWB]

28. It is not so much that the unemployed lack skills.

The problem is that they often lack the skills to perform the jobs that companies are willing to pay for.

Many small business are on the ropes and cannot allocate the time and money for training. And, this assumes that the potential employee has good WORKING skills---arriving on time, following the handbook, not causing distractions.

Companies hire employees to do a full day's work for a full day' pay; those who aren't productive will not be retained.

[JoeyT]

30. The only job skills the unemployed lack are

the ability to work for less than a living wage and for lots of unpaid overtime. It's usually said by people that think if you don't spend your workday polishing a chair with your ass then you contribute nothing of value.

I'm not unemployed, but I'm looking at moving to a new area and nearly every time I call someone with an opening to ask what they're paying I usually end up telling them off. So far the funniest was one that tried to offer me (a blatantly illegal) $3.50-4.00 an hour plus half my tips. For maintenance.

Edited to add: If you want to see what gives lie to this bullshit meme, look at the number of people that are way above the skillset for the job they hold. When people with degrees are flipping burgers, lack of job skills isn't the problem. It's a lack of fucking jobs.