{"id":886,"date":"2009-06-25T09:38:49","date_gmt":"2009-06-25T15:38:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/crawler\/?p=886"},"modified":"2009-06-25T09:38:49","modified_gmt":"2009-06-25T15:38:49","slug":"in-the-recession-skilled-labor-is-in-high-demand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/2009\/06\/25\/in-the-recession-skilled-labor-is-in-high-demand\/","title":{"rendered":"in the recession, skilled labor is in high demand"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Sparks<\/a>An interesting New York Times<\/a> article published earlier this week highlighted a segment of the American workforce that is booming despite the persisting recession.<\/p>\n

The Times <\/a>reports:<\/p>\n

The unemployment rate has risen precipitously to 9.4 percent, the highest level in nearly 30 years, and most of the jobs that do come open are quickly filled from the legions of seekers. But unnoticed in the government\u2019s standard employment data, employers are begging for qualified applicants for certain occupations, even in hard times. Most of the jobs involve skills that take years to attain.<\/p>\n

Welder is one, employers report. Critical care nurse is another. Electrical lineman is yet another, particularly those skilled in stringing high-voltage wires across the landscape. Special education teachers are in demand. So are geotechnical engineers, trained in geology as well as engineering, a combination sought for oil field work. Respiratory therapists, who help the ill breathe, are not easily found, at least not by the Permanente Medical Group, which employs more than 30,000 health professionals. And with infrastructure spending now on the rise, civil engineers are in demand to supervise the work.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Times calls upon sociologist Richard Sennett to elaborate on this emerging trend…<\/p>\n

For these hard-to-fill jobs, there seems to be a common denominator. Employers are looking for people who have acquired an exacting skill, first through education \u2014 often just high school vocational training \u2014 and then by honing it on the job. That trajectory, requiring years, is no longer so easy in America, said Richard Sennett, a New York University<\/a> sociologist.<\/p>\n

The pressure to earn a bachelor\u2019s degree draws young people away from occupational training, particularly occupations that do not require college, Mr. Sennett said, and he cited two other factors. Outsourcing interrupts employment before a skill is fully developed, and layoffs undermine dedication to a single occupation. \u201cPeople are told they can\u2019t get back to work unless they retrain for a new skill,\u201d he said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Read more. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An interesting New York Times article published earlier this week highlighted a segment of the American workforce that is booming despite the persisting recession. The Times reports: The unemployment rate has risen precipitously to 9.4 percent, the highest level in nearly 30 years, and most of the jobs that do come open are quickly filled […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[39074],"tags":[34,143,117,76],"class_list":["post-886","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sightings","tag-education","tag-labor","tag-trends","tag-work"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/886","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=886"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/886\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":888,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/886\/revisions\/888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}