This Seattle Times article offers a sad commentary on the job prospects of displaced workers, and on Washington State’s shameful level of investment in Bachelors-level higher education. It should be “must reading” for policymakers:
“An International Monetary Fund (IMF) study estimated that between 2007 and 2010, the skill level of Washington’s work force (measured mainly by years of education) got more out of whack with the available jobs than in any other state except Delaware.
“That mismatch helps explain why thousands of jobs in Washington can go unfilled at the same time more than 322,000 state residents are out of work …
“In June, more than 7,500 openings for advanced computer-related jobs in King, Snohomish, Pierce and Kitsap counties were listed on the state’s WorkSource database — more than a quarter of all 27,000-plus metro-area openings.
“But those jobs require years of training and, ideally, more years of experience.”
Read this excellent and sobering article here.
A direct link to the graphic that appears to the left: here. (Four the top 10 job openings in the Puget Sound region are for computer scientists, totaling nearly 60% of the available jobs.)