Higher wages cure labor shortages

Corporate and political leadership continue to complain about the inability to find workers in the skilled trades/mid-skill jobs. Their solution is to go back to tracking kids––almost certainly others, not theirs––into vocational programs. One problem: if there are labor shortages,…

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Employers responding to skill shortages

There is a lot of skepticism about a skill shortage in technical occupations –– the most publicized are in manufacturing –– because employers seem to be doing the opposite of what they should to respond to shortages. Mainly not raising…

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Its the bailout!

Michigan's better than the nation economy for the last year or so is primarily the result of the federal government's huge bailout of the domestic auto industry. End of story! As I wrote previously it is big government in action…

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Bissell, Part II

Nancy Crawley quotes Upjohn Institute economist George Erickcek in her column on Bissell. George, who is one of the best thinkers I know on economic development policy, says in the column "I for one am not willing, without a stronger…

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