Yep, I see evidence of it right where I work. We have a few high paying openings that are unfilled. Nobody in our current workforce has the skill or ambition to move up, and we're struggling to find somebody off the street. We'll probably end up overpaying in salary, and paying a shitload in relo to bring someone here from out of state.

It's just so bizarre how some voted for the guy, under the false pretense that a job based on antiquated technologies and process would be "coming back" to America (based on false narrative it went overseas just cuz) when in reality, whether here or elsewhere, jobs are being taken over by technology for all the obvious reasons. Add to that the sense of entitlement in this country that some jobs are "below" a person, but that dozens of willing immigrants can't have the job because they're ...not "American."

Such fucked up thinking

do you really think the void is mostly skill? While I have no doubt there is some level of skill gap, the data clearly shows a massive loss of jobs that's been happening for decades. You have entire industries that are gone and moth balled facilities all over the country. I think some of those jobs and probably even industries should have moved overseas - the idea that everything we buy should be made here is moronic, it ignores the very basic economic principle of competitive advantage. It's also moronic to think everyone should go to college and that nobody should be channeled into vocation training instead. But it's equally moronic to think we have more than enough jobs, just not enough skilled workers to fill them. And the skill gap isn't simply a numbers game, there are other considerations like factor mobility that come into play (workers exist to fill some of those jobs but they're not necessarily located where the jobs are). This was one of my big arguments against the Euro - in the US we all speak one language, have a pretty common culture and no real barriers to relocate yet it took more than a generation for people to move from the rust belt to parts of the country that were actually growing (like the west and southwest) while factories were shutting down in the rust belt - factor mobility in Europe is far worse than here and here it's not that mobile.