Many U.S. companies continue to report that despite continued high unemployment rates, they're having trouble filling some jobs. That's particularly true in the rebounding manufacturing sector. The Washington Post has a story about the odd problem today, focusing on the situation in Fresno, Calif. India-owned Jain Irrigation Systems, a major extruder of plastic irrigation systems, is one of the companies mentioned in the report. Post staff reporter Michael A. Fletcher writes that Jain "cannot find all the workers it wants for $15-an-hour jobs running expensive machinery that spins out precision irrigation tubing at 600 feet a minute, 24 hours a day, seven days a week."
"The job requires at least a high school education, and maybe some technical training, but we don't seem to be getting the right people applying," said Aric J. Olson, Jain's president.The problem, he writes, is that available workers don't have the right skills for the jobs, and some training programs aren't geared up yet to prepare them.
