Education key part of employment situation

We have heard the positive numbers associated with the reduction in unemployment in the United States. A quick review of the data has shown a consistent decline in the unemployment rate from 2010 to today. If traditional holiday retail and logistical hiring occurs, we might see further declines in the unemployment numbers.

The rosy labor picture is not consistent across the country, nor is it consistent from group to group within a given geography. One example we have close to home is in the Groton area. There is a reported significant number of jobs available for workers on the submarines and nearby component assembly plants. However, it also is reported that there is a shortage of workers with the requisite skills.

The same situation has been reported for the second headquarters for Amazon. The very desirable headquarters jobs have been honed down to two locations, at last report, because the locations are the only ones in the United States with enough workers with the necessary technical skills.

In Racine, Wis., there is a major issue brewing over the location of a Chinese manufacturing plant that received more than $3 billion in state assistance for what was supposed to be a manufacturing facility and associated jobs. Recent reports have indicated that the Chinese firm has not been able to find enough engineers in the area for the desired facility and that Chinese engineers may have to be imported to meet manpower requirements.

The employment landscape in the United States, based upon the above references and others, would indicate that there is a job skills disconnect between the skills of our workers, the skills needed for particular work environments and the geographical locations of the jobs.

We have just had elections for many local, state and federal positions. In many of the campaign discussions I heard, there was the call for more jobs or the promise to bring more jobs into a given area. However, there was very little mention of the educational attainment and training requirements necessary to have a workforce that can fulfill the jobs in the 21st century.

I did not hear any calls for expanding and enriching the STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math) curriculum across the country or in any of the states for that matter. I think we need more students in the STEAM curriculum across the country, more teachers who can teach the subjects and therefore more investment in these areas across the country.

Technical jobs, which are among the best paying, require advanced technical education. It seems as though our preparation of high school students to become the technical and knowledge workers of the future is lagging behind the rest of the world and behind the requirements of industry here at home.