Obama Attempts to Link Up Job Seekers and Employers

Official presidential portrait of Barack Obama...

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Many Americans out there are disappointed with President Obama’s overall performance and inability to turn the economy around. A recent poll by the Washington Post / ABC News suggested that up to 60% of the population is dissatisfied with his handling of our economic problems.

Some may argue that Obama stepped into a bad situation when he became president almost four years ago. Perhaps it was Bush’s fault and Obama just inherited a big mess. Either way, although the Great Recession is supposedly over, many Americans are still without jobs.

Unemployment rates are teetering right around 10% across the country. Who’s to blame should not be the issue at hand. The main focus should be on trying to improve the situation; at least President Obama is making plans for the future.

A recent article in the LA Times discusses Obama’s “Skills for America’s Future” program and other plans to train job seekers for positions with manufacturing companies. This $2 billion federal program is designed to customize job-training programs to employ our displaced workers and prepare them for local area manufacturing companies.

The problem isn’t a lack of jobs, according to Obama. Manufacturing companies are hiring for skilled workers, but the unemployed are simply not correctly trained to meet these needs. Obama’s solution is to emphasize training able-bodied American workers for new positions or existing jobs they had not considered before.

Obama called these displaced workers the “sparks” that must be lit in order to ignite our economy. His plan includes commitments between members of the National Association of Manufacturers and colleges to develop job-training programs. More than 500,000 community colleges across the country would implement these programs and prepare students for specific jobs at local manufacturing companies.

In today’s technologically advanced world, it no longer pays to be a renaissance man. At one point in time, it may have been beneficial to know a little bit about everything, but these days you must specialize. Obama’s manufacturing training programs will help prepare the emerging American workforce for specific positions within the manufacturing industry.

Whether this plan will really be the key to solving our economic problems is yet to be seen. The manufacturing industry is only one sector of the workforce. What about all the other areas of employment that are lagging? What Obama has in store for those of us not involved in the manufacturing business will be interesting to see.

President Obama’s new preoccupation with the suffering workforce and job market problems could quite possibly be due to the fact that he is about to be up for re-election next year.

One thing is for sure; at least he is doing something about it. These plans may not entirely save our economy and finally drag us out of the recession, but every little bit helps. These are steps in the right direction to getting back on our feet again.

 

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