

Unemployed in Europe Stymied by Lack of Technology Skills - Futurebot
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/04/business/international/unemployed-in-europe-hobbled-by-lack-of-technology-skills.html?hp

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petethomas
One question perhaps worth asking: Why do this piece and the many similarly
tiresome pieces preceding it mostly fail to mention how higher salaries
offered would motivate graduates and other unemployed people to acquire these
missing skills?

Put a different way, fifteen or so years ago: "Economists who have studied
occupational shortages generally hold the view that in an unconstrained
market, supply will equal demand at the 'true' market price. If demand exceeds
supply, salaries will be bid up until the market clears." [1]

Also of interest but perhaps unrelated, "At Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase
average pay slipped by about 5% in the first nine months of last year, a
figure that is probably representative of the wider industry." [2]

[1]
[http://www.bls.gov/mlr/1999/03/art2full.pdf](http://www.bls.gov/mlr/1999/03/art2full.pdf)

[2] [http://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-
economics/21592642...](http://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-
economics/21592642-pay-investment-banks-starting-fall-not-because-politicians-
have)

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ht_th
In Europe, money isn't everything, especially for youngsters choosing to study
for an academic degree. The idea of "following your dreams" or studying what
you like is still big. Because studying is often subsidized, people can make
that choice easily because they won't have an enormous amount of dept in
return for a "worthless" degree. Before the crisis finding a job with whatever
degree wasn't hard and the previous crisis (1980s) didn't do much to prevent
choosing "worthless" degrees either.

Most of the people growing up since the late 1960s have had the possibility to
do whatever they wanted without regard for future earnings and sustainability
of their lives. Just re-schooling people with degrees in the humanities, fun-
studies, social sciences, and so on to science, technology and engineering
sounds easier than it is for these people have made conscious choices to
neglect and dismiss mathematics and science courses since leaving primary
school. To some degree, their whole social and cultural being seems to be
incompatible with that of science and technology.

