So, Why are there 2.6 Million Jobs Available in the US?

A great friend of mine forwarded me the new Business Week blog post by Peter Coy. I'm grateful because he left some things unsaid.

I agree it would be super cool to be a Wine & Cheese Sommelier or Art Auctioneer on a cruise ship but I hadone of those"the cheese smells in Denmark" moments thinking those jobs certainly aren't representative of the majority of those 2.6 million unfilled. And I knowI'm right, however,I do not feel qualified at this time to comment on the Gentlemen Host vacancies.

Heidi Allison, a public relations person who also runs a reference-checking service called Allison & Taylor, Inc., is quoted in the article saying that theyremain vacant positions because,People dont know about them. Id say thats the main reason. Obvious to me with a background in recruiting, thereare more concerning reasonsunless all of a sudden no one wants to work on the Love Boat. I'm skeptical but might consider applyingmyself if I knew where those exotic jobs were posted.

So we move on to the "mismatch" theory. It's the one where geographically speaking qualified people aren't available where the jobs are located. I don't buy it with the exception of highly technical fields, in which case the whole country has brain drain. But, were not talking of 2.6 million brain drain type jobs. According to the Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics were talking about jobs in manufacturing, health services, construction, hospitality, blah blah blah....

Nounemployed available to do those jobs in every city in our great Nation? I don't think so...

Here's mystabbing guess:

• The jobs pay minimum wage or just above and that's not a living wage so no one wants them. They are holding out to find something they can actually sustain their families on.
• Employers think because so many people are out of work they'll find a Rocket Scientist to do it - at minimum wage.
• Over qualified candidates are applying because their unemployment comp is running out and employers are afraid they'll bolt once there is a turnaround.
• The companies have a bad rep as employers and have horrid turnover regardless of the economy because they don't value their employees the way they should.
• The right Recruiters are not working the requisitions or there is no Recruiter working them at all, it's an office Secretary.

I don't know, I might have missed a reason or two, but you get the idea. Anyway, I did a little more digging.

"On the last business day of May 2005, there were 3.5 million job openings in the United States."

OK, so thereare a little more than a million less jobs available in 2009 than there were in 2005. So, why were there 3.5 million jobs available in 2005 that couldn't be filled?

Let's continue to have a poverty level minimum wage and at the same time virtually halt Visas for immigrant workers.

Sound like a fix?