FINANCIAL TIMES: OPINION: Skills gaps will force companies to do right by their compatriots
October 17, 2022
By Oren Cass
Employers who profited from cheap foreign labour cannot now gripe at having to train local workers
Business leaders who complain constantly of “talent shortages” or “skills gaps” may, in fact, have only themselves to blame. The perceived weaknesses among their staff may be the result of overambitious or flawed plans. Anyone can see the folly in trying to hire thousands of experienced biochemists at minimum wage to develop cutting-edge drugs. The problem is not a biochemist shortage; the problem is the bad idea. Equally foolish is the software executive who expects an unlimited supply of eager coders, or the plant manager who believes well-trained technicians will line up at his door…
New research published on Thursday by the Burning Glass Institute, Harvard Business School, and the Schultz Family Foundation…show[s] how much better employers can do. The American Opportunity Index uses data from millions of online job ads and CVs to analyse the career paths of US workers, typically without college degrees, through the nation’s 250 largest publicly traded companies. The index focuses on three dimensions of opportunity that employers provide: access (hiring of entry-level workers and those without college degrees), pay (median wage offered in each occupation) and mobility (how far and fast workers are promoted, how long they stay and how successful they are moving on to other companies)…
https://www.ft.com/content/a95840de-26f7-4fb1-8c15-eaf373779cd8
