According to Politico, on the eve of President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address on Tuesday, an overwhelming majority of Americans cited strengthening the economy as their top priority for 2012 and most want him to concentrate on domestic issues, according to a new poll Monday.
“Economic issues are the top policy concerns Americans say they want the president and Congress to focus on in 2012, according to a Pew Research Center for the People & the Press poll. For 86 percent, the economy is a top priority, while 82 percent said improving the jobs situation in the country should be a primary concern for politicians.”
From a Tech sector standpoint, I believe the President and his advisers are still missing the point regarding job growth. Too many jobs in Tech are going unfilled because we don’t have training opportunities which can teach more people skills that they can use in the fastest areas of growth in the World. Every year people clamor to our one day seminars exposing beginner level developers to the arena of software development. But yet we still do not have enough trade school type classes to fill the hiring requirements of the companies that have stalled development projects because of the lack of talent.
I know that Tech is not the only sector with a lack of skilled labor, manufacturing could use more machinists and welders, and Medical could use more nurses. In contrast, tech can be done remotely and other nations such as India, China, and Brazil – will all train more people and their economies will be rewarded for it. We’ve always been the leaders in Computer and Software innovation – we need to train more people to keep that innovation happening here.
