Marketplace Scratch Pad

Why this is a bad sign

Paddy Hirsch May 1, 2009

Businessweek reports even in this recession, there are approximately 3 million jobs that employers are actively recruiting for but so far have been unable to fill.

It’s evidence of an emerging structural shift in the U.S. economy that has created serious mismatches between workers and employers. People thrown out of shrinking sectors such as construction, finance, and retail lack the skills and training for openings in growing fields including education, accounting, health care, and government. At the same time, the worst housing bust in decades has left the unemployed frozen in place. They can’t move to get work because they can’t sell their homes.

As bad as it is now, the mismatch will create bigger problems when the economy begins to expand again, the report contends.

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