Following Up - The Economy, Folks

You may have noticed that the markets have returned to more reasonable levels recently. We should be on an upswing from here, given that our economy is really in pretty decent shape. Many of the metrics used by the really smart people on Wall Street indicate that we're going to continue to expant.

Jim Cramer, one of the people that I follow closely, notes that the transportation industry (durable goods shipmnets, freight car loadings, bulk carriers, and so forth), are doing quite well, TYVM. These leading indicators tell us where we're been, and more importantly, what's next, and that news is decidedly good.

Likewise, other news from the backbone and heartland is also much more positive than negative. Manufacuring, especially of the sort that we excel at, is also moving in the right direction.

All of this gooes to show, however, that much of our unemployment problem rests with the skills mismatch that we find between what employers need and what the workforce has to offer. The best ways to remedy this issue in the short term Are for employers to work with community colleges and within their own organizations to offer short term training opportunities to current and otherwise capapble potential employees to get things moving again. It really doesn't take much more than 3-6 months to retrain a machinist on the newest machinery rather than bemoan their fates. Employers could easily do the same with modern inspection methods, but THEY have to be willing to make an investment here.

One industry that I follow closely is the thermal spray coating process , where an industry-wide coating applications operator program is currently in place. Someone has to pay for the training, however, and employers seem reluctant to make even that kind of minimal investment in their own futures. I'm sure that employees would be happy to pay for the exams, if someone would cover the training costs - the equipment is expensive but can be paid for by a company, or group ("consortium"?) of companies. This effort would provide the people necessary in an industry that can use them , stimulate the local economy and at lest in a small way, get us going again.

More later.