Don't Forget the Importance of Skilled Trades Jobs

On 12/2/11, I posted excerpts from The Death of the Fringe Suburb by Christopher B. Leinberger.

I also made the following comment...

In our rush to support the knowledge economy, I hope we don't forget those who may not be working in that particular sector. Remember, you can't have a knowledge economy without skilled tradespeople like electricians, plumbers, and carpenters.

Recently, I read the article Wanted: Blue-Collar Workers written by Joel Kotkin. Kotkin is Distinguished Presidential Fellow at Chapman University in Orange County, California.

Kotkin opens his article stating...

To many, America’s industrial heartland may look like a place mired in the economic past - a place that, outcompeted by manufacturing countries around the world, has too little work to offer its residents. But things look very different to Karen Wright, the CEO of Ariel Corporation in Mount Vernon, Ohio. Wright’s biggest problem isn’t a lack of work; it’s a lack of skilled workers.

Here are some of Kotkin's key points:

• Even as overall manufacturing employment has dropped, employment in high-skill manufacturing professions has soared 37 percent since the early 1980s, according to a New York Federal Reserve study.
• Today’s factory worker is less Joe Six-Pack and more Renaissance man.
• The shortage of industrial skills points to a wide gap between the American education system and the demands of the world economy.
• These days, the returns on higher education, particularly on higher education gained outside the elite schools, are declining, as they have been for about a decade.
• Two-year colleges will be crucial to the effort to train skilled workers.
• This may not be the postindustrial future envisioned by Ivy League economists and Information Age enthusiasts. But it could spell better times for a country in sore need of jobs.

Can Troy, Oakland County and Southeast Michigan capitalize on this opportunity?  Not only for our economic future but to help those mired in long-term under-employment or unemployment?