Japan, United States among economies with talent shortages, study shows

The United States and other large economies cannot find enough skilled workers, engineers and other in-demand employees

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Try paying people what they are worth for starters.

Next, Japan could stop with the age, sex and various other limits to skilled workers.

The United States and other large economies cannot find enough skilled workers, engineers and other in-demand employees, according to an annual study on talent shortages.

This is such BS... There are plenty of skilled workers, but they are not going to work for pennies on the dollar. I think it's more of a tax write-off scheme than anything... They want someone that's either willing work for the wages equivalent to the cost of living in Bangladesh or someone that has qualifications you might find on the resume of one of the last 20 NASA Test Pilots, and only those aircraft commanders that have actually commanded Shuttle Missions, with at least 1600 hours in orbital space flight, or they don't even want to talk with you...

I'll start packing... after i learn japanese.

Riiiight,

Meanwhile, a vast army of University grads, many with Ph'Ds, remain unemployed.

They had a news article here a month or so ago about how there are plenty of jobs in the manufacturing sector, but nobody is qualified to fill them. Metalworking and milling machines are mostly computer controlled now, and kids graduating high school have experience manually milling metal, but zero experience with a computerized milling machine. Thus, there are blue collar jobs out there sitting unfilled because the blue collar workforce is under-trained. That's something even the immigrant workforce is unable to handle.

Colleges graduate too many students with worthless degrees. Like sociology, psychology studies especially in the west. Then add that may don't teach hands on technical skills other then through text book based. More people are needed in the STEM fields (Science Technology Engineering Math), these fields are always in demand and never stand growing or improving. They are also always financially rewarding and obtain skills that never go to waste. Fortunately for me I decided to go down the route of the Robotics field which is rapidly growing right now and will explode in about 5-15 years.

Colleges graduate too many students with worthless degrees. Like sociology, psychology and gay studies especially in the west

Didn't know Uni's offered gay studies these days... but there is a point to this madness

In Japan, companies pay no attention to bring back the talented working mothers. For women it is very difficult start the work, I see the two problem areas 1. Companies do not want them 2. It is become very hard to find the day care.

And traditional Japanese companies does not accept the changes that easily...

@malfupete, they don't, universities don't give degrees in Gay Studies, though a minor might be possible. On the other hand, Sociology and Psychology are actual degrees, and not necessarily worthless (based on a family member who is a professional psychologist). AiserX was just implying that some majors are gay (i.e. not always financially rewarding).

USA's supposed "lack of skill" is nothing compared to Japan's. In a country with a increasing elderly population, and a block on immigration, the young people are too busy chatting on 2ch or playing games.

Japan may have a shortage of talent but they certainly don't have a shortage of tarento. Wish it were the other way around....

Actually Bob, the US has a pretty bad situation going on right now. We even have some southern legislators literally passing laws allowing science teachers to teach creationism (aka not science) and not evolution at all. The drop out rates are not decreasing..nor are our scores. The tea party and the republicans want to defund more and more. It's a pretty big problem when nearly half of our population does not even believe in facts (evolution). But one thing we have "going" for us is..we can import China and India's smart people...for now anyway, until they become rich enough for a reverse brain drain.

I think there are a few issues here.

A) Uni grads who think they are too good to do such work

b) People being under trained though thinking their degree in Poly Sci actually makes them employable.

c) The push to allow everyone IN to uni. Let's be honest, anyone and their dog can get a degree these days which belittles the whole process. It used to be for the elite or those who were smart. Not anymore.

d) Standards of employment are so high it is near impossible to get such skills from ANY school let alone a trade school and/or university

e) wages are crap

Add all these in and you've got companies who want someone with a PhD who can take apart a sink, explain the components and then make new ones out of blown glasses, done by the perspective job seeker. The madness that everyone has a "right" to get a uni education needs to stop and the increase of trade schools and apprentices needs to increase.

Also, the whole idea that a degree makes you employable. I am getting so sick of reading about those "poor youth" who have unis degrees that can't find jobs. If you don't have the people skills, the attitude nor the personality, no degree is going to help you. Look at Japan and students here. Would YOU want to hire most of them? I wouldn't. Most are useless and don't have a clue what an honest day's work includes because mommy, daddy and the school system didn't tell them.

"Higher pay, at least for now, is not a common response to the talent shortage."

Well, there you have it.

Has anybody been reading the headlines in the past 5 years?

Companies are laying off thousands of skilled, experienced engineers.

There is no "shortage" of labor. There is a shortage of jobs and a shortage of companies willing to pay to train their employees.

Companies are laying off thousands of skilled, experienced engineers.

I've missed this. My understanding is that young deadweight, regardless of background has been let go - while the old guys stay or get a nice early retirement package to leave. The people I know personally who have been laid of are so lacking in skills it isn't funny. Same goes for people I know who can't seem to find a job - they think they should be given a high salary and huge benefits because.. they have a degree. Who cares? I have three and I don't expect what many of them do.

The only "shortage" is in the number of employers prepared to pay a decent salary (and other terms and conditions).

Has anybody been reading the headlines in the past 5 years?

Companies are laying off thousands of skilled, experienced engineers.

There is no "shortage" of labor. There is a shortage of jobs and a shortage of companies willing to pay to train their employees.

As I posted above, there are plenty of jobs out there in the blue collar sector, but seriously, how many "engineers" do we really need? When I worked for General Electric back in the '80's I was a "Field Service Engineer" despite having only taken a few college courses. My "engineer" status was granted based on a high school diploma and six years of working on that type of equipment (anti-submarine sonar) when I was in the navy. When the Soviet Union collapsed and the navy's priority shifted away from finding Typhoon and Akula-class submarines, our entire division was sold off to Martin-Marietta and thousands (including me) were laid off. Of those "engineers" who were laid off, I would venture that less than half of them had actual Engineering Degrees. The rest? Non-degree holders with lots of experience in working with sonar, but that doesn't translate well into other markets. Over-specialization was our downfall. My current job has nothing to do with sonar, the navy, or big corporations in general. I retrained myself and now work IT in a public school system.

The jobs ARE there, but you're rarely going to be able to jump from one type of job to another without some re-training.

P.S. expecting your existing company to pay for your re-training is usually going to result in disappointment. Sure, there are companies that do re-train employees to fill needed positions, but the majority of the time they can't wait for your re-training to complete to fill the position.

Over-specialization was our downfall. I agree with this in the West but not in Japan. In Japan, no one cares what you degree is in when they hire you as they'll spend six months training you however they like IF you get hired as a FT employee. That fact that companies hire anyone and THEN have to spend six months training them proves to me that uni degrees in this country are uselss in terms of work skills and ability. Companies know this, students know this yet... everyone and their dog thinks they "have" to go to uni for some damn reason. Then why they get out with zero skills (work and social) they are shocked that they can't find a job that will pay them big bucks and give them a job for life. Those days are LONG gone.

The smart people are the ones that continue to work towards next certifications, qualifications... that make them mobile when poop hits the fan like you said Fadamor. People think that learning ONE skill/trade means they're okay. It doesn't. It makes them unemployable unless they take steps to learn something new - at THEIR expense.

I don't know, in a way I think being a gaijin in Japan has instilled this sort of mentality as we know we're always going to be on the bottom rung and have to fight for everything. Be it getting an MA to get a uni PT job, upping your Japanese, learning some culture thing that your boss is into... "We" seem to get that we're disposable while many back home and the locals here just don't get it. Or perhaps it is the group of foreigners I know here. The whole "Publish or perish" thing here has a fire under most people's butts that I just don't see back home. It shocks me when people from "home" ask why I continue to study, why I do certain things... The "funny" thing is, some of them are now having their jobs cut and are panicking because NOW they realise they've been wasting their time thinking they're marketable with nothing more than an undergrad degree they got 15 years ago.

It's strange that, according to big business, developed economies with advanced education and training facilities, have a shortage of "skilled" labour, yet third-world countries seem to offer plenty of "skilled" workers that big businesses are desperate to employ, if only the immigration laws could be changed to allow them to do so.

What they really want, of course, is to bring in cheap labour from overseas to boost their profits.

too much of innovations, who made innovations are in 2020, 2030 and who seek the job is in old times in 1990, 2000. better than be oriented to seek job is would be entrepreneur, for understand the time, the global time of winners in which all we live.