American Grads Are Unemployable but they get 6 figure salary offers

Date: Monday, June 08, 2009 5:08 AM

<<<<< JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER No. 2023 -- 6/08/2009 >>>>>

In the first article (Infoweek), Vineet Nayar, an Indian CEO of the bodyshop
HCL, said that Americans who graduate from our universities are unemployable.
He feels that students "from developing countries" like India are superior
employees in part because they aren't obsessed with getting rich quickly. In
other words, he won't hire American grads because they are too expensive.

HCL hires Indians almost exclusively, so it's safe to assume that Nayar's
disparaging comments don't just apply to our young college graduates -- he
thinks ALL Americans are unemployable. Nayar's statements were racist and
bigoted but they certainly weren't any different than things that have been
said by American CEOs or by our politicians.

The second article was published by Forbes, and based on a study by Manpower,
is making the rounds on the internet and in newspapers. It says that despite
an accelerating unemployment rate employers still can't find enough engineers.
According to this article the shortage of engineers is so drastic that
undergrads are getting six figure starting salaries.

So, if American engineering grads are truly unemployable as Nayar contends,
just how can Manpower be right that they be getting such high salary offers?
Oops! The answer must be that only Indian undergrads are getting those dream
jobs. LOL!

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2009/06/top_indian_ceo.html;jsessionid=JMVHBOMHCDZZGQSNDLOSKH0CJUNN2JVN

Top Indian CEO: Most American Grads Are Unemployable Posted by Rob Preston
on Jun 3, 2009 02:54 PM

OK, before you get your knickers in a twist, let's put the CEO's comments into
context. Vineet Nayar, the highly respected CEO of HCL Technologies, one of
India's hottest IT services vendors, was speaking this morning in New York
City to an audience of about 50 customers and partners when he related a
recent experience with an education official in a large U.S.
state.

The official wanted to know why HCL, a $2.5 billion (revenue) company with
more than 3,000 people across 21 offices in 15 states, wasn't hiring more
people in his state. Vineet's short answer: because most American college
grads are "unemployable." (In fairness to HCL, the company recently announced
plans to open a delivery center in another state, North Carolina, and invest
$3.2 million and hire more than 500 employees there over the next five years
under a Job Development Investment Grant.)

Many American grads looking to enter the tech field are preoccupied with
getting rich, Vineet said. They're far less inclined than students from
developing countries like India, China, Brazil, South Africa, and Ireland to
spend their time learning the "boring" details of tech process, methodology,
and tools--ITIL, Six Sigma, and the like.

As a result, Vineet said, most Americans are just too expensive to train--
despite the Indian IT industry's reputation for having the most exhaustive
boot camps in the world. To some extent, he said, students from other highly
developed countries fall into the same rut.

In an interview following his presentation, Vineet said HCL and other
employers need to have a greater influence on the tech curricula of U.S.
colleges and universities, to make them more real-world and rigorous. For the
most part, he said, those institutions haven't been receptive to such industry
partnerships.

More broadly, Vineet echoed the concerns expressed by other CEOs, including
SAS Institute's Jim Goodnight and Cisco's John Chambers, about the failure of
the U.S. education system to prepare the country's next-generation tech
workforce (a subject Goodnight and others will dive into at the
InformationWeek 500 Conference, Sept. 13 to 15).

Beyond the need to bolster competencies in math, the hard sciences, and basic
problem solving, U.S. schools at all levels must place a greater emphasis on
global history, foreign languages, and other subjects that prepare students
for jobs and life outside this country. How many grads of U.S. colleges are
ready or even willing to work abroad? Vineet asked rhetorically. "We need to
define the American dream to be more global in nature," he said.

The cynical among you will counter that some American students, having seen
tech jobs move to lower-wage countries or go to H1-B visa holders, have lost
their appetite for process-oriented IT professions. But if this country's
economic future is indeed rooted in technology--whether in health care,
energy, transportation, or the tech industries themselves--then the status quo
won't do.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

http://finance.yahoo.com/career-work/article/107149/the-hardest-jobs-to-fill-in-america?mod=career-leadership

The Hardest Jobs to Fill in America
Thursday, June 4, 2009provided byForbes

If you're looking for work in any of these fields, you're in luck.

For the second year in a row, engineer is the hardest job to fill in America.

Why are engineers so hard to find? "We have whole generations of people loving
liberal arts, not going into science and math," says Larry Jacobson, executive
director of the National Society of Professional Engineers.

Other professions on the staffing firm Manpower's list of the 10 hardest jobs
to fill in the U.S.: information technology staffer, nurse, machinist and
teacher. The survey of 2,019 employers was done in the first quarter of 2009.

It might be hard to believe that any employer is struggling to fill positions,
since the unemployment rate reached 8.9% in April, up from 5% a year before.
But the Manpower survey found that employers are having a very hard time
filling jobs for skilled workers in specific niches. "The overall unemployment
rate is a killer," says Jonas Prising, Manpower's president for the Americas.
"To see something better, you have to look at specific jobs."

It is definitely an employers' market, broadly speaking. In 2006, 44% of U.S.
employers surveyed reported having a hard time filling jobs; this year, only
19% did. Still, Jacobson anticipates a shortage of engineers into the
foreseeable future. There are several reasons. First, the federal stimulus
program is hastening the rebuilding of America's highways, bridges and
tunnels, and the refitting of buildings to be more sustainable, which is
making the demand for engineers soar. Also, the demand for new sustainable
energy sources such as wind farms is increasing too. Meanwhile, the
profession's most experienced workers are retiring in droves.

"Companies are looking to replace more than half of their engineers over the
next eight years, because baby boomers are retiring," Jacobson says.
"When you have 80,000 engineers working for you, as Lockheed Martin does,
that's a lot of jobs." He says that even if every single seat in the nation's
engineering schools is filled, that's only 75,000 engineers being trained
annually. That won't come close to making up the shortage.
Engineering is a field that requires years of experience before you take on
major responsibility. It's one thing to learn the theory of building a bridge
or a tunnel in school, but it's quite another to have decades of work at it
behind you.

Also, any government-funded project--including ones resulting from the
stimulus package--requires an engineer to have passed the test to get a
professional engineering license. Only one in 10 engineers has that advanced-
level document, Jacobson says.

Those who do become engineers find they're in a lucrative field that doesn't
require as much schooling as say, being a doctor or a lawyer.
Beginning engineers need only an undergraduate diploma--and with that they
earn a starting salary of six figures. Those who attend one of the top
engineering schools--Princeton, Stanford or Caltech--are likely to get at
least six job offers when they leave school.

Of course, you have to be a stellar math and science student. To get admitted
to a top-tier school, you need to take pre-calculus by your junior year in
high school--not an easy feat for most teenagers.

The next profession on the list, nursing, also requires an interest in math
and science. But that isn't why there's a shortage of nurses. The demand for
them is higher than ever because the aging American population needs more and
more health care, and advances in medicine are enabling nurses'
patients to survive and need treatment longer, while many nurses are reaching
retirement age.

Exacerbating the shortage is a lack of educators able to train the next
generation. Karen L. Miller, dean of the nursing school at the University of
Kansas Medical Center, laments, "If there aren't enough teachers, we can't
make more graduates."

The Hardest Jobs to Fill in America

In today's economic climate, it's hard to believe there are jobs that
employers are having a hard time filling. But they do exist, according to the
staffing firm Manpower's annual talent shortage survey. From the 2,019
employers who responded to the survey in January, Manpower created this list
of the 10 hardest jobs to fill in the U.S.

1. Engineer

There are several reasons it's hard for employers to find qualified engineers,
says Jonas Prising, Manpower's president for the Americas.
First, employers don't want to hire two or three engineers with a variety of
specialties, they want one engineer who is trained in several areas.
Another reason is that there are far too few new college graduates in
engineering to replace retiring engineers. Also, the Obama administration's
pledge to rebuild America's infrastructure is increasing the need for talented
engineers.

2. Nurse

There are several causes of this shortage. First, America's aging population
requires more caregivers for chronic illnesses affecting older people. Also,
advances in medical care require more nurses to assist in treatment. However,
there's a shortage of nurse educators, so while demand for professionals is
great, there aren't enough teachers to train the next generation fast enough.

3. Technician

These are workers in engineering, technical, operations or maintenance roles
who may be classified as either skilled or semi-skilled workers. They often
support professionals who have deeper skill bases. Like workers in skilled
trades, technicians are trained at vocational schools, and they're in short
supply because so many high school students are encouraged to go to four-year
colleges instead.

4. Teacher

Many schools find it hard to hire qualified teachers, because becoming a
teacher often requires a graduate degree, but salaries remain relatively low.
Meanwhile, they need more teachers, with many baby boomers retiring.

5. Sales Representative

Salespeople are in demand during tough economies because they're instrumental
in companies' growth. But it takes a long time to become a skilled sales
representative, since it involves serious training and becoming an expert in
your product and its market. Also, you need a mix of soft skills and technical
skills, a tough combination to find.

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