Skilled Workers

Re "A Shortage of Skilled Workers," Opinion, Nov. 2: Joel Kotkin only tells some of the factors that have caused the labor shortage. What about the barrage of downsizing of recent years that forced many experienced and skilled people into early retirement? And what about the dismissal of these higher-paid, skilled workers in favor of lower-paid, younger workers. With no orderly transitioning of skills from the older workers to the younger ones, the end result is that it'll cost the corporation more at the end. The California Supreme Court decision on the age discrimination case (Oct.

Never let a crisis go to waste, says an old rule of politics. For some major players in the economy, the financial crisis that began five years ago this month with Lehman Bros.' collapse turned out to be as much an opportunity as a calamity. Although the memories that the anniversary evoke are overwhelmingly grim - cascading home foreclosures, bank failures, massive layoffs, diving stock prices - five years later some spectacular winners have emerged from the maelstrom, along with a more familiar list of pitiable losers.

With more than 12.7 million Americans unemployed, companies have no trouble attracting applicants. What's tougher for some firms is finding qualified workers. Just ask California Steel Industries. The Fontana steel maker needs experienced electrical and mechanical technicians to help it make metal pipes and flat-roll sheets used in construction projects. The pay is good. An industrial maintenance mechanic can make $64,000 a year plus health benefits. In good years, company profit-sharing can boost pay by $5,000.

Central Valley farmers, Southern California bankers and Silicon Valley executives have all struggled to find workers - and they say an outdated immigration policy has been to blame. They're all hoping that a bipartisan group of U.S. senators will have the answer when it unveils its plan, as early as this week, to overhaul federal immigration laws. Their stance: Reform couldn't come quickly enough. "What's at stake is the future of our economy, whether we can remain the most entrepreneurial nation," said Steve Case, co-founder of America Online and now chairman of investment firm Revolution.

Most of the storefronts on Jean Jaures Avenue in this small mining town are boarded up and appear abandoned. But in the brightly lighted window of Franck Fresson's pastry shop, tropical flowers intertwine with wild beasts made of sugar. Inside, chocolate figurines and an array of cakes sit like colorful, edible jewels. Behind the counter, Fresson's mother serves the customers who travel across the countryside to this shop, which belonged to Fresson's grandfather before him. Today, Fresson oversees every detail, arranging the glistening cakes in "harmonious," color-sensitive order.

WASHINGTON - An influential Republican senator involved in drafting a bipartisan immigration bill wants to lower the number of family members of U.S. citizens allowed to immigrate each year and instead increase the number of highly skilled workers. Democrats in the group have not agreed to the approach, but Democratic Senate aides concede that it could be part of the give and take of a deal. The proposal would eliminate the current preference for admitting siblings and adult children of U.S. citizens, but leave in place the preference for spouses and minor children.

Before he lost his job, Dedrick Rems was making $28 an hour as a technician for Raytheon Co., repairing tank and airplane turrets at the military contractor's El Segundo facility. He had been with the company his entire working life, beginning as a clerk at age 18 and ending when he was laid off in October 2009. The week before Christmas, Rems was making $8.50 an hour to deliver packages in the pouring rain as a seasonal helper with UPS. But the 50-year-old Compton native wasn't complaining.

The wages of skilled Soviet workers, traditionally held below those of manual laborers, will rise by 30% to 40% as part of a measure to improve productivity, the government daily Izvestia reported Thursday.

U.S. manufacturing industry executives have bemoaned a skills gap in the nation's workforce, but a new report says the shortfall isn't a big deal - yet. By the end of the decade, the shortage of highly skilled workers could balloon to 875,000 from 80,000 to 100,000 workers now, according to a study from Boston Consulting Group. The current deficiency of workers represents less than 1% of the 11.5 million total factory workers in the country, according to the consulting group.

As the U.S. Senate heatedly debates immigration reforms, a California study released Wednesday projects that the state would need to triple its number of college-educated immigrants to fill a looming shortage of engineers, health professionals and other highly skilled workers. But the study by the Public Policy Institute of California concludes that the state is unlikely to attract the additional 160,000 college graduates it will need by 2025, either from foreign countries or other states.

American companies are so eager to hire highly skilled foreign workers that a cap on new visas has been reached within a matter of days. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced Friday that it has received more than 85,000 applications from employers seeking visas for computer programmers, engineers, physicians and other educated workers with specialized skills. Of the total visas, 20,000 are set aside for people with graduate degrees from American universities. Because the 85,000 limit was exceeded within five days of the April 1 opening date, a lottery will be held to distribute the visas.

WASHINGTON - An influential Republican senator involved in drafting a bipartisan immigration bill wants to lower the number of family members of U.S. citizens allowed to immigrate each year and instead increase the number of highly skilled workers. Democrats in the group have not agreed to the approach, but Democratic Senate aides concede that it could be part of the give and take of a deal. The proposal would eliminate the current preference for admitting siblings and adult children of U.S. citizens, but leave in place the preference for spouses and minor children.

In announcing his wrongheaded proposal to increase the minimum wage to $9 an hour, President Obama spoke in lofty terms: "In the wealthiest nation on Earth," he said in his State of the Union address last month, "no one who works full time should have to live in poverty. " If the debate proceeds as it has -- many times -- in the past, then most Democrats will embrace the president's message and back the proposal, while most Republicans will oppose it, on the grounds that higher labor costs will lead to higher unemployment.

Ken Rakusin is frustrated. You would be too. Since 2009, the owner of Gordon Brush Manufacturing Co. has been trying to expand his 51,000-square-foot City of Commerce factory by 20,000 square feet. That would mean a larger factory floor, more office space for the engineers who work with customers to design new products, conference rooms, a spacious cafeteria. It would mean room to expand beyond Rakusin's current workforce of 85. More sales. Higher payroll. More property tax, sales tax, income tax. A $1.5-million investment in construction alone.

U.S. manufacturing industry executives have bemoaned a skills gap in the nation's workforce, but a new report says the shortfall isn't a big deal - yet. By the end of the decade, the shortage of highly skilled workers could balloon to 875,000 from 80,000 to 100,000 workers now, according to a study from Boston Consulting Group. The current deficiency of workers represents less than 1% of the 11.5 million total factory workers in the country, according to the consulting group.

The skills gap that has the U.S. manufacturing industry panicked isn't a big deal for now, according to a new report from the Boston Consulting Group. But by the end of the decade, the shortage could balloon to 875,000 highly skilled workers from a shortfall of 80,000 to 100,000 now, according to the study . Today, the deficit of workers represents less than 1% of the 11.5 million total factory workers in the country, or less than 8% of the 1.4 million highly skilled employees.

Don Weiss had a problem. As the owner of a medium-sized company with backlogged orders for the factory equipment it makes, Weiss needed to step up production. But in the tight labor market in northern New Jersey, he could not find the skilled machinists he needed. He considered hiring away skilled production workers from other manufacturers but decided that would be too expensive.

Re "Northrop to shed nearly 600 workers," Business, Sept. 18 Northrop Grumman Corp. will be firing 600 workers. This action is described with soft phrases, including "trimming the payroll. " Shedding workers is how The Times' headline describes the firings. Shedding is a soft, natural process hardly reflective of the true meaning to the unemployed, decent skilled workers and their families. Haskell Wexler Santa Monica ALSO: Letters: 'Stolen Valor' again?

Harvard University's graduates are earning less than those from the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology after a decade-long commodity bull market created a shortage of mining workers. Those leaving the college of 2,300 students this year got paid a median salary of $56,700, according to PayScale Inc., which tracks employee compensation data from surveys. Median salary for those graduating from Harvard, where tuition fees are almost four times higher, was $54,100. Those scheduled to leave the campus in Rapid City, S.D., in May are already getting offers, at a time when about 1 in 10 recent U.S. college graduates is out of work.