Want Your Daughter to Work in a Factory?

   Do you want your daughter to work in a factory? Every economist wants to bring back manufacturing, but none say they want their daughter to work in a factory for $13 an hour.   Do you?

 The U.S. and Canada cannot, and should not, bring back factories. Factory workers have recently been downgraded from $28 an hour to $13 an hour pay.  And they have less job security, more unemployment. And of course they have less education than knowledge workers. 

  The real worker shortage and need is for knowledge workers, who will make around $100,000 a year, be in high demand, and possess a four year college degree.  That's where the jobs are, even now in 2011. By 2017 we will have a shortage of knowledge workers of 14 million, says Anthony Carnevale.

 Photo: The real Rosie the Riveter was Geraldine Hoff Doyle. She passed away this year. She only worked for two weeks in a factory during World War II because she saw another girl get injured on the job, and left the factory scene herself.

Comments

[Moncler Outlet]

That was my thought,too.

[Account Deleted]

Thanks for the nice blog. It is very useful for me.
dc shoes hats
http://www.hatssalesmall.com/7-dc-shoes-hats

[Yy W]

tory burch flip flops
http://www.shop4toryburch.com/10-tory-burch-flip-flops

[Marlena Boggs]

When you say 'knowledge worker', I'm not entirely sure I know which fields or skills that encompasses. If we just say the kids have to 'go to college' - what fields will get them those high-end jobs? Only science, technology and engineering? What *is* the real purpose of education? What happens to those major ethical questions which will have to be made in the future? Will they be made with no background? (ie: Does a cloned person have the same rights as one not cloned?) In my field (librarianship) there is an interesting article about the lack of research skills in undergraduates now-it's not just that they use Google to find sources, but they don't even know how to use Google effectively. (see http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/story/2011-08-22/Study-College-students-rarely-use-librarians-expertise/50094086/1)

The other term I hear a lot is '21st century skills'. That seems to be used in terms of utilizing digital media. But, I'm also not clear if that means using the technology or creating it)

Thanks for the thoughts.

[Rich Kelly]

I suggest we distinguish between manufacturing jobs and factory jobs. Manufacturing jobs pay a solid middle class wage ($50k and above) with benefits and are performed by knowledge workers (today, most high skill, high wage machinists are computer programmers and operators).

Factory jobs are moving overseas. There will be few of these left in America. We won't miss them. No one wants a pacemaker stamped "Made in China". China is facing a larger skilled worker shortage than we are.

Not everyone can or should be tracked into a Bachelor's degree program. We are failing a significant majority of our high school students by pushing bachelor's degree tracks of little or no value in the global economy.

I always appreciate checking in with the Nine Shift site. The topics and discussions help decode ongoing changes. Experience has taught me it is more important to ask the right question. I offer, this is the wrong question.