Monthly Archives: February 2011

Manpower Inc. Calls for Education Overhaul to Ease Skills Mismatch

Jeff Joerres, Manpower Inc. Chairman and CEO, Participates in CNBC Live Debate on Measures to Boost Jobs in Advanced Economies at World Economic Forum Annual Meeting

MILWAUKEE, WI /PRNewswire/ Manpower Inc. (NYSE: MAN), world leader in innovative workforce solutions, will on Wednesday, 26 January, participate in the CNBC live debate at the 2011 World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos titled “The West Isn’t Working,” where high-profile thought leaders will suggest actions to stem the tide of jobs losses in advanced economies in the face of a growing talent mismatch, global power shifts and the threat of a lost generation of workers.

Jeffrey A. Joerres, Manpower Inc. Chairman and CEO, will argue in favor of the motion “Education is Failing Industry,” in part two of the debate and will be challenged by Amy Gutmann, President of the University of Pennsylvania. Joerres will warn that, despite continuing high unemployment, the disparity between the skills taught by education institutions and those needed by business means western countries will find it increasingly difficult to source the critical talent they need.

“The world is experiencing an era of volatile and rapid transformation. This is exacerbating the disconnect between learning and industry as education cannot keep up,” said Joerres. “The entire system needs to be revaluated. Changes would be significant, but are necessary to ensure industry, governments and educators are to effectively align education and training with business needs.”

The debate challengers include Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director, Reliance Industries; Arianna Huffington, Co-founder and Editor-in-Chief, The Huffington Post; and Phillip Jennings, General Secretary, UNI Global Union. Front Row VIPs include Peter Loscher, President & CEO, Siemens AG; Min Zhu, Special Advisor, IMF; and Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Chairman & Managing Director, Biocon.

As talent replaces capital as the key competitive differentiator, the working age population in most markets shrinks, and emerging markets such as China, India and Brazil become the new global powerhouse, it is now essential to plug the gap between education and industry. Therefore, Manpower recommends that more emphasis should be placed on high-quality problem-solving education and taking “on the job” degrees, making these qualifications more aligned to the needs of their employer.

A collaborative approach will be central to achieving this. For example, skilled trades regularly top Manpower’s annual list of the Hardest Jobs to Fill, despite high unemployment. Part of the problem is the mismatch between what is taught in vocational courses and the skills required by employers. Furthermore, skilled trades fail to attract apprentices in the numbers required, although offering potentially lucrative and rewarding careers, they are up against a perception of being less honorable.

To address these problems, trade associations, businesses and governments should partner to ensure students are well prepared to enter the workforce and have the specific skills employers are looking for. A societal mindshift must be created by employers, trade groups and educators working together to bring honor back to skilled trades.

“Many young people come out of the education system with skills which are not aligned with the needs of the world of work,” added Joerres. “Learning on the job is a solution to re-connect the education world and the world of work, and enables young people to start building a constructive career path.

“The big solution to the problem is that industry and educational institutions must work together more constructively and governments need to target funding in the right areas. Companies, governments and educators all have responsibility to get this right.”

Individuals must play a role in this too; with the world changing so rapidly, the ability to remain agile is crucial for workers to keep up. Employees must take advantage of training opportunities to keep their skills fresh and relevant. Skill sets will become obsolete more quickly, increasing the importance of so-called “soft skills” versus applicable knowledge to ensure intellectual curiosity and a hunger for lifelong learning.

Manpower Inc. is proud to be a strategic partner of the World Economic Forum 2011 Annual Meeting. Jeff Joerres, Manpower Inc. Chairman and CEO; David Arkless, Manpower Inc. President of Corporate and Government Affairs; Francoise Gri, Manpower Inc. President of Southern Europe; and Jonas Prising, Manpower Inc. President of the Americas, are all participating in high-profile panels at this year’s annual forum. Manpower partners with WEF on several initiatives, and in 2010, Joerres co-chaired the World Economic Forum on Europe meeting, Arkless is Chair of the Global Agenda Council on Skills & Talent Mobility. For more information about Manpower’s presence at the World economic Forum 2011 Annual Meeting, go to: www.manpower.com/pressroom. Joerres will also be sharing regular insight and expertise via Twitter on events in Davos and transformational implications for the world of work. Follow Joerres’ tweets at www.twitter.com/manpowerceo

About Manpower Inc.

Manpower Inc. (NYSE: MAN) is a world leader in innovative workforce solutions; creating and delivering services that enable its clients to win in the changing world of work. With over 62 years’ experience, Manpower offers employers a range of solutions and services for the entire employment and business cycle including permanent, temporary and contract recruitment; employee assessment and selection; training; outplacement; outsourcing and consulting. Manpower’s worldwide network of 4,000 offices in 82 countries and territories enables the company to meet the needs of its 400,000 clients per year, including small and medium size enterprises in all industry sectors, as well as the world’s largest multinational corporations. The focus of Manpower’s work is on raising productivity through improved quality, efficiency and cost-reduction across their total workforce, enabling clients to concentrate on their core business activities. Manpower Inc. operates under five brands: Manpower, Manpower Professional, Elan, Jefferson Wells and Right Management. More information on Manpower Inc. is available at www.manpower.com.

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SOURCE Manpower Inc.

CONTACT: Britt Zarling, +1-414-526-3107, Britt.zarling@manpower.com, or Mark Jelfs, +1-414-906-6675, mark.jelfs@manpower.com, both of Manpower Inc.

Web Site: http://www.manpower.com

National Debt, Jobs & The End Run by S.163 and H.R. 142, aka ‘Full Faith and Credit Act’ or ‘Pay China First’

NATIONAL DEBT – The End Run – Within 6 weeks the U.S. government will run out of money.

There are two bills in Congress being pushed by Republicans that require close watch: S.163 (Senate) and H.R.421 (House). If these bills pass then we should expect Republicans to freeze the national debt level as it currently is and to walk away from further discussion on how best to restructure federal programs and to keep them within our ability to pay.

These bills are entitled the ‘Full Faith and Credit Act’. If passed, the Act would require that the government pay our creditors first (China et al) and then adjust satisfaction (payments) of all other federal debts: national budget, social security, medicare, wars, etc.

As a conservative I believe in balanced budgets, although balanced budgets are not uniquely a conservative concept. How you reach a balanced budget has many different views. The above bills would seek to achieve balanced budgets through blunt force trauma.

What successful passage of these bills would do, prior to any national debate on bringing our debt under control, would be to force the federal government to radically slash federal programs.

The real question is whether programs would be slashed equally — all priorities being of equal priority to someone else — or whether certain programs would be exempted, like defense.

If defense is included, an across the board expenditure reduction of all federal programs may be 20-22%. Without defense included then all non-defense programs would probably face almost 40% cuts.

The short version explanation of what these bills do: allows a vote not to raise the national debt level and then force the government to pay our creditors first (China et al) and then to slash any remaining expenses (social programs, etc.) so that the expenses match taxes collected.

It does not say that defense will be spared, but that is the Republican way, and Republican leadership has declared that defense will not be touched. To the Tea Party’s credit many Tea Partyers have been vocal that defense must be on the table.

I support the concept of both bills if it were explicit that ALL federal expenses were to be cut equally. But that is most unlikely.

It is also most unlikely that Republicans would engage in any real dialogue or negotiation of federal budget and national debt reduction discussions if these bills pass without there being an agreed upon federal expense reduction agreement in place first.

JOBS – What this means for jobs is that the unemployed would be severely impacted. Our safety net is already thin and almost non-existent for many millions of Americans. The January 2011 ‘Jobs Report’ by the Bureau of Labor statistics provided proof of voodoo economics at work when less than 40,000 jobs were created yet the official (U3) unemployment level fell from 9.4% to 9.0%.

Approximately 125,000 jobs must be created each month just to keep up with population growth. 1/10th of 1% is approximately 100,000 people. How can it be that we create just under 40,000 jobs yet the change in percentage would indicate that almost 500,000 people are unaccounted for?

Even stranger in the calculations is that the long-term unemployed number also decreased. This is just not possible as population growth alone would cause the number to be stable or to grow unless jobs on the magnitude of 125-200,000 were being created. Something is strange in the bookkeeping department.

However, the focus needs to remain on S.163 and H.R. 142. Without there being some agreed upon plan to help provide a safety net for the many millions unemployed due to no fault of their own then hacking and slashing social programs by 20-40% is a recipe for disaster.

Furthermore, the Democrats would be fools to allow these bills to pass just so the Republicans could pillory them on being weak on defense by cutting defense equal to other federal programs. Yet the majority of the debt and discretionary spending causing our massive national deficits is directly attributable to defense and to security which represents $2 out of every $3 of discretionary spending.

As a conservative I support restructuring of how we deal with our national debt, deficits and federal budgets. What I do not support is an end run that shuts down productive discussion of how we get there and causes an almost de facto collapse of our federal budgetary processes.

Text of Senate Bill S.163 http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c112%3AS.163:

Text of House Bill H.R. 421 http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c112:H.R.421:

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