More evidence for the ‘skills mismatch’ explanation of high unemployment. The 2008 Recession and its ongoing aftermath shows a disconnect between the skills employers need and the skills employees have. This has contributed to the longest stretch of high unemployment since the Great Depression, and something that has received scant attention from the Obama administration, which has instead been focussing on the re-election campaign to the exclusions of almost everything else. Many jobs in home construction, durable-goods manufacturing and distribution, and mortgage finance were dependent on housing markets, which have crashed and burned and continue to smolder. The attempts by the administration to address this, HARP, etc., have been abject and dismal failures, with participation rates so low as to obviate the entire program. Unlike Bill Clinton, who said he "feels your pain" (though of course he was lying), Obama hardly cares, being totally focused like a laser on only that which serves in the campaign.
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