machine shops and welding companies there are growing. you heard that right, growing. looking to hire. problem is finding skilled workers. like many u.s. manufacturers, excel foundry and machine can not fill job vacancis. we re absolutely frustrated. nine plus percent unemployment and we re dough everything we can to attract employees we desperately need. reporter: we re talking about 8 $80,000 a year positions pipe fitters, machinists, skilled laborers. trained with specific skills. we went through this period where many of those jobs were moved overseas. many of them when manufacturing recession hit weren t just needed. all of sudden we have this missing generation of people who can do those technical jobs. reporter: the department of labor says there are four million fewer people working in skilled laborings tos positions today than there were 20 years ago. one of the problems in
businesses in central illinois could just prove you wrong. machine shops and welding companies there are growing. you heard that right. growing. looking to hire. the problem is, finding skilled workers. like many u.s. manufacturers, excel foundry and machine can not fill job vacancis. we re frustrated. nine pus percent unemployment and we re doing everything we can to attract employees we desperately need. reporter: we re talking about $80,000 a year positions welders, pipe fitters, machinists, skilled labor. that is the problem. a deficit of laborers trained with specific skills. we went through this period where many of those jobs were moved overseas. many of them when the manufacturing recession hit just weren t needed. all of sudden we have missing generation of people who can do those technical jobs. reporter: the department of labor says there are 4 million fewer people working in skilled labor positions
obama s really going to let a foreign oil company bully a bunch of landowners in nebraska. i just don t think that s in if his makeup. reporter: but pushing for the pipeline are several unions. the teamsters, pipe fitters and others who would benefit from the thousands of jobs in the building that pipeline. we have a company that wants to invest private money into creating jobs in the united states of america. we can t get elected officials to create jobs, but we can get elected officials to stop jobs, and that needs to come to an end. reporter: on top of that, transcanada says many of the parts used in the pipeline would be coming from places like arkansas and ohio and oregon, places that also could use jobs. so the administration is, apparently, between a rock and a hard place here. which group does it not make happy? does it not make happy union groups by either delaying or just outright refusing the permit to build this pipeline, or does it make environmental
the long term unemployed, at some point you have to make the decision, can i come can i go out and develop new skills that the market needs right now. in the second patch of jobs, we have more health care, technology, we have a legal function here. again, think about it almost like those medical technicians. you don t want to have expensive lawyers doing all the legwork, so you need paralegals who can come in, who understand under the law they haven t been through three years of school, but they can get a lot of the work done for much lower cost. so there s great demand for people with these skills. and it continue to go on in the trades, as well. pipe fitters, welders, mechanics, there s a dirth upof people, companies cannot find people with enough skills. let s hope the administration creates some program that
and own again. a growing skills gap, a crumbling infrastructure. and just a general dysfunctional relationship with dirt. there really are a couple of different pieces of this country that are not connected. what can we do about it and what are you doing about it? i got a tv show and i talk about it. beyond that, my skills are sadly limited, i m afraid. we ve done a pretty good job of getting a general tribute out there over the last six or seven years with the show. two years ago, though, i asked my viewers to help me sort of put a point on the problem. and they helped me launch a website called mikerowe works on labor day which calls to light the skills gap isn t going to close itself and if we don t do something soon we ll deal with fewer steam fitters and pipe fitters and electricians and plumbers and carpenters. that s going to be a real problem. mikerowe works served as a model