Headline Oct 14, 2015/ ''' JOBS : SAFETY NETS TO SPRING BOARDS '''

''' JOBS : 

SAFETY NETS TO SPRING BOARDS '''

THE BITTER TRUTH IS  -that as far as creating jobs and fighting youth unemployment is concerned,  -especially in the developing world, it has always been the point of politicians capitalizing.

As the great American economist, and a nobel laureat, Paul Krugman puts it: ''Ignoring political fakery, pretending we're having a serious discussion when aren't, is a a kind of fraudulence.'' 

IT IS JUST SO HARD to be optimistic about a problem that is blighting the lives of so many people. But it is perhaps time to be a bit less pessimistic.

The well-to-do Nordic countries found that they could hardly cope with the surge in unemployment after the crisis, despite spending about 2% of GDP on training. 

Countries like Spain and Italy, with millions of unemployed people, could not hope to follow suit in a time of boom alone one of austerity. Culture matters, too. Britain's government raised the number of apprenticeships but diluted their quality in order to keep unemployment figures down.

The  coalition government has tried to improve quality  -but some firms have merely rebelled  existing training programmes in order to obtain taxpayers' money.

*A deeper worry is that business is going through a particularly dramatic period of creative destruction. New technology is unleashing a storm of  ''disruptive innovation''  which is forcing firms to rethink their operations from the ground up*.

**Companies are constantly redesigning their work   -for example they are separating routine tasks  {which can be automated or contracted out}  from skilled jobs. They are also constantly redesigning themselves by ''upsizing'', ''downsizing'' and  ''contracting out''**.

The life expectancy of companies is declining, as is the job tenure of chief executives. Policymakers are finding it more difficult to adapt their labour-market institutions quickly enough.   

However, some firms are taking more interest. IBM has sponsored a school in New York. McDonald's has an ambitious new training scheme.

India's IT giant, Infosys, plans to train  45,000  new employees a year, including 14,000 at its main campus in Mysore. Americana Group, a regional food and restaurant company with headquarters Kuwait, allows trainees to spend up to half their time at work and the rest in college.

In addition, technology is also providing solutions as well as exacerbating problems. It is greatly reducing the historically high cost of vocational education.

''Serious games''  can provide young people with a chance to gain ''virtual experience'' at a minimum cost:

McDonalds uses competitive video games to teach how to use the till and interact with customers, for example. Mozilla, the creator of  FireFox  web browser, has created an  ''open badges''  initiative that allows people to gain recognition and programming skills.

Technology is also making it easier to take work to people who live in work deprived areas or who are shut out of the market by cartels. 

Amazon's Mechanical Turk, an Internet marketplace, enables companies to hire workers to perform simple tasks such as identifying people in photographs. They can take part from anywhere.

But, Policymakers know what to do to diminish the problem  -ignite growth, breakdown cartels and build bridges between education and work. New technology gives them powerful tools too.

Countries that make the investments and choices needed to grapple with their unemployed youth could see some dramatic improvement ahead.

With respectful dedication to all the Leaders of the Free World. See Ya all Your Excellencys' on  !WOW!  -the World Students Society Computers-Internet-Wireless:

''' A Degree In Unemployment '''

Good Night and God Bless

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless