Study: Worker skills gap hurts economy
In this Aug. 16, 2011 photo, Paul Fuller, left, stands in line to enter a job fair in Independence, Ohio. Fuller is currently employed but is looking for a sales job. Fewer people applied for unemployment benefits last week, a sign layoffs have stabilized. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak) Credit: AP Photo/Tony Dejak
A growing skills gap is making it more difficult for the sluggish U.S. job market to recover, according to a study released Friday by the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C.
That study, "Education, Demand and Unemployment in Metropolitan America," looks at joblessness in the 100 largest metropolitan areas in the United States during the last recession.
It finds a growing chasm between the skills employers need and what local workers have. At the height of the recession in 2009, the average U.S. job required 13.54 years of education, yet the average working-age adult in this country had just 13.48 years of education, the study states.
Among those areas with the biggest unemployment rate gaps between college-educated workers and those with a high-school diploma or less, metropolitan Detroit led the pack. It had a 14.7-point gap in May 2009. The area's overall unemployment rate was 11.6 percent in May 2011, the most recent unemployment rate cited in the study.
By comparison, the New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island-Pennsylvania statistical area, with a 4.5-point gap, had one of the lowest differences between the two groups. The area had an 8.3 jobless rate in May 2011. Long Island's rate was 6.7 percent, compared with 7.1 percent now.
The report also notes that the type of industry concentrated in a metropolitan area affected its unemployment rate. Those with a large number of jobs in construction and manufacturing fared far worse than those with a big presence in the more recession-resistant sectors that include health care and oil and gas extraction.
Until July, Long Island's educational and health care sector hadn't lost jobs on a year-over-year basis since 1990. The sector had 1,300 fewer jobs in July than it had the year before.
The nationwide skills gap, unless addressed, will hamper a recovery, the report says.
"Yet even when the economy recovers, longer-term structural unemployment will linger in some metropolitan areas because of mismatches between the supply of, and demand for, educated workers," the report states.
Sarra Sounds Off, Ep. 25: Wrestling and hockey state championships On the latest episode of "Sarra Sounds Off," Gregg Sarra and Matt Lindsay recap all the state wrestling action from Albany this past weekend, plus Jared Valluzzi has the ice hockey championship results from Binghamton.
Sarra Sounds Off, Ep. 25: Wrestling and hockey state championships On the latest episode of "Sarra Sounds Off," Gregg Sarra and Matt Lindsay recap all the state wrestling action from Albany this past weekend, plus Jared Valluzzi has the ice hockey championship results from Binghamton.
