The Labor Department's employment report, released this morning, showed the unemployment rate increased to 9.2 percent, with employers adding 18,000 jobs in June. But employees and employers still face a dilemma over the nation's skills gap.
The unemployment rate in May was 9.1 percent, after nonfarm payroll employment grew by a modest 54,000 jobs, much fewer than the 110,000 jobs economists expected to be added.
Stephen Bronars, senior economist at Welch Consulting, said many economists had grown more pessimistic since the May report, forecasting 80,000 jobs for June.
"People were overreacting to that bad news," Bronars said. "I'm a little more optimistic than what I think consensus is."
Bronars said the Labor Department's monthly jobs reports have shown increasingly that the state of the labor market differs depending on one's education, experience and training.
"If you have the right skills, the labor market has been improving substantially over the last year. For people who lack those skills, especially those who may only have a high school degree, they're going to still struggle in the labor market." PHOTO: A job seeker looks at a bulletin at the Texas Workforce Commission's Workforce Solutions of Greater Dallas job resource center in Richardson, Texas, July 5, 2011. LM Otero/AP Photo A job seeker studying a bulletin board at the... View Full Size PHOTO: A job seeker looks at a bulletin at the Texas Workforce Commission's Workforce Solutions of Greater Dallas job resource center in Richardson, Texas, July 5, 2011. LM Otero/AP Photo A job seeker studying a bulletin board at the Texas Workforce Commission's Workforce Solutions of Greater Dallas job resource center in Richardson, Texas, July 5, 2011. Obama Answers Speaker Boehner's Tweeted Question at Twitter Town Hall Watch Video Bill Clinton: ABC Exclusive Interview Watch Video Hidden Talents Save U.S. Jobs Watch Video
According to the 2011 Annual Talent Shortage Survey, 52 percent of U.S. employers in January said they had difficulty finding people with the skills they needed to fill positions.
"That might sound paradoxical or counterintuitive with a high unemployment rate, but the fact is there's a talent mismatch," Melanie Holmes, vice president at ManpowerGroup, which surveyed about 40,000 employers in 39 countries in January, said. "There might be people looking for work, but they don't have the skills people are looking for."
The job skills gap and how to close it remains a "hot topic," said Holmes.
"We've got to cut the deficit, but we can do that while making investments in education, research and technology that actually create jobs," President Obama said in his weekly radio address Sunday. The president was also asked several questions related to entrepreneurship, job creation and training during the first White House Twitter Town Hall meeting this week.
And advanced manufacturing and job creation often come up in discussions about U.S. competitiveness, unemployment and reducing the nation's deficit.
The global average of employers reporting difficulty in filling jobs is 34 percent, while in U.S. neighbor Canada it's 29 percent.
It's not clear what's contributing to the difference in employer responses internationally, but the weakening U.S. dollar and strengthening loonie -- the Canadian $1 coin -- has meant a higher cost of living in Canadian cities.
Vancouver, Montreal and Calgary all rank higher than Los Angeles, the most expensive city in the U.S., with the cost of living in Toronto equal to that of New York, according to the Worldwide Cost of Living Report published by the Economist Intelligence Unit Thursday.
According to the Manpower Group survey, the most difficult jobs to fill in the U.S. were those in the skilled trades -- carpenters, plumbers and electricians.
Holmes said she suspected that skilled trade jobs have become "aging professions" in which the number of new workers is not keeping pace with the number of those retiring or exiting.
"I don't think a lot of young people are waking up and saying, I want to be a plumber, though that's definitely anecdotal," she said. "Many high school students -- and their parents -- do not aspire for them to attend a technical school or get an apprenticeship for a trade. Many people want to go to a four year college."
