Kerby Anderson

President Trump wants manufacturing reinvigorated by bringing many jobs back to the U.S. That is great for America and great for American workers. But who is going to fill those jobs?

The latest numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show 7.6 million job openings along with 6.8 million unemployed workers. You might ask why those millions of unemployed workers haven’t snapped up those millions of job openings.

Mike Rowe (host of “Dirty Jobs”) says the problem of filling those jobs is two-fold. He says we have a “skills gap,” and we also have a “will gap.”

The skills gap is the disparity between the skills an employer expects their employees to have, and the actual skills employees possess. It is certainly true that jobs in the medical field require a science degree and jobs in big tech require a computer science degree. But most of the blue-collar skills don’t require a degree but require some mechanical ability and training.

Unfortunately, lots of high schools removed shop classes that could be training the next generation of Americans who like to work with their hands. Instead, students have been convinced they should go to college and take out massive student loans to get a degree that may not even prepare them for a future job.

The will gap is best illustrated by what economist Nicholas Eberstadt refers to as the “flight from work.” His Washington Post op-ed three years ago lamented that at that time there were seven million men who were not working and not looking for work. The number of non-working men has only dropped a percentage point in the last few years.

If the president is successful in bringing jobs back to America, pastors, parents, and other leaders must encourage the next generation to go to work.