Why Skills Are Not Enough to Land a Job [View all]

[eridani]

http://www.thenation.com/article/why-skills-are-not-enough-to-land-a-job/

But other analyses of the academic data, by the left-leaning think tank Economic Policy Institute (EPI) and independent economist Joydeep Roy, place the modern diploma in a more complex economic frame. First, while Achieve compares various states’ graduation criteria, as EPI President Lawrence Mishel explains, “none of their comparisons are historical, showing a change from an earlier period.” Yet historical trendlines suggest that skills required in high-school curricula today might often exceed those the job market demands—linked in part to the so-called “deskilling” of certain conventional trades, which some economists argue is pushing highly trained workers “down the occupational ladder” (read: baristas with BAs). If there is a gap in qualifications, it seems to center on overqualified workers who can’t find positions commensurate with their credentials. (By the way, the same research reveals steadily rising portions of high schoolers taking Algebra II, along with calculus, chemistry, and physics—so maybe it’s not the school system that lacks rigor but the labor market).

There are, of course, serious problems with inequality, inconsistency, and racial segregation across the public education system. And many high-school graduates start community college needing major remedial coursework, and may struggle to catch up to college-level academics. But cynicism about lackluster diplomas may be misplaced, or more dangerously, distract the public from holding corporations and policymakers accountable for dismal job prospects.

The worries about inadequate graduation standards echo the perennial warnings emanating from the corporate world about the so-called “skills gap,” which economist Paul Krugman calls a “zombiidea” frequently manipulated by business “opinion leaders” seeking to avoid blame for mass joblessness or low wages. “Instead of focusing on the way disastrously wrongheaded fiscal policy and inadequate action by the Federal Reserve have crippled the economy and demanding action, Krugman wrote last year, “important people piously wring their hands about the failings of American workers.”

The same very important people seem now to be wringing their hands about high school’s being simply “too easy.” EPI’s latest analysis of workforce data, however, reverses the blame equation for young graduates by showing long-term barriers to secure employment that can’t be explaineaway by variations in academic rigor. Historically, the unemployment rate among younger workers (under age 25) has been more than double the general unemployment rate, reaching 12.3 percent versus 5.3 percent in early 2015. Black and Latino high-school graduates suffer joblessness rates of nearly 30 and 20 percent, respectively, compared to 17 percent for whites. Moreover, long-term unemployment has consistently afflicted workers at all education levels, undercutting the notion that some magical pool of jobs is waiting to be claimed by those with just the right skill sets. (And thus makes it harder for employers to justify not offering decent wages and working conditions.)