Unemployed people should go back to school and get trained in the jobs of the future as the way to find a new job. That's one we hear a lot from the "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" crowd. Of course, job training is expensive, the need for it tends to come when people can least afford it, and the best training in the world can't help you get a job that doesn't exist.
Making matters worse:
Federal money for the primary training program for dislocated workers is 18 percent lower in today’s dollars than it was in 2006, even though there are six million more people looking for work now. Funds used to provide basic job search services, like guidance on résumés and coaching for interviews, have fallen by 13 percent.
That leads to stories like those reported by Motoko Rich of the
New York Times of Atlas Van Lines looking to hire 100 drivers in Louisville, Kentucky, only to find that federal driver training money had run out, leaving many aspiring drivers unable to pay the $4,000 in classes required for a commercial driver's license. Or take Dallas, where "officials say they have annual funds left to support only 43 people in training programs."
House Republicans, of course, want to further cut funding for job training.