Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Importing Labor

How is it that with an unemployment rate of 8.3% some U.S. companies are importing labor?

From CNN Money...
U.S. manufacturers, frustrated by a shortage of skilled American factory workers, are going abroad to find them. 
Business for factories has surged recently, creating a huge demand for machinists, tool and die makers, computer-controlled machine programmers and operators.  "These jobs are the backbone of manufacturing," said Gardner Carrick, senior director with the Manufacturing Institute. "These are good quality middle-class jobs that Americans should be training for." 
The United States is experiencing a shrinking pipeline of manufacturing talent, said James Wall of the National Institute for Metalworking Skills. "It's been in the making for years," he said. Factories didn't feel the labor pinch as much when manufacturing was in a slump. But the latest "Made in USA" resurgence has them scrambling.  Wall said some manufacturers have been relying on foreign workers to fill the gaps through H-1B visas. 
"We can and should develop our own skilled production workforce through career and technical institutes," Carrickn said. "These schools can provide U.S. manufacturers with the reliable supply of skilled production workers that they so desperately need."
And yet, some within the GOP think that the President's call for more people to seek education beyond high school is snobbery.

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