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The Labor Shortage Hoax
Alan Tonelson
Friday, January 27, 2006


There’s a new glut on world markets. No, I’m not talking about the gluts of Chinese apparel or shares of Google stock bought at $475 each or of sub-prime U.S. lenders. I’m talking about the new glut of studies claiming that what really ails the U.S. economy is a shortage of skilled workers.

In fact, all these studies really show is that there’s still another glut that’s engulfed the economic policymaking world – of raw, unadulterated chutzpah. What else could explain the contention that, as American multinational companies continue offshoring even the nation’s most knowledge-intensive, best-paying jobs, the biggest problem these same companies face at home (along with smaller firms) is finding enough qualified workers to take advantage of all the extraordinary career opportunities they’re creating?

Not surprisingly, these studies are all coming from the outsourcing lobby itself. In November, the National Association of Manufacturers, whose sector of the economy has lost 3.34 million jobs since employment peaked in 1998, reported finding “a widening gap between the dwindling supply of skilled workers in America and the growing technical demands of the modern manufacturing workplace.â€