July 02, 2010
The NYT reported that manufacturers are having a hard time finding the skilled workers they need for their modern factories. However, the evidence presented in the article suggests the opposite. It reports that in Cleveland, the city on which the article is focused “more skilled workers earn $15 to $20 an hour.”
This is not an especially high wage. For example, it is unlikely that many New York Times reporters live on $30,000 to $40,000 a year nor would they be very happy if their children got a job paying this much. The problem appears to be that manufacturers don’t want to pay the market wage for the skills that they need. This is like someone who wants to buy a 4-bedroom home with a yard in a good neighborhood in Washington for $200,000, and then complains that there is a shortage of good homes.
There are good homes in Washington and there would be plenty of skilled workers for manufacturers to hire in Cleveland, if they were just willing to pay the market wage. The only evidence of a lack of a skills in this article is that the managers interviewed for the piece don’t seem to have a good grasp of basic economics.
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