A Solution Searching for a Problem

I’m not even going to bother to link to it but in one of Robert Samuelson’s recent columns he argued in favor of apprenticeship programs. Although I’ve written favorably about such programs in the past, I can’t honestly figure out what problem he’s trying to solve.

With 3.5% unemployment it would have to be some apprenticeship program to attract “discouraged workers” back into the labor force. I think the net impact of such programs under present circumstances would be to provide a way for employers to pay employees less by calling them “apprentices”.

Germany has had apprenticeship programs for some time. Their unemployment rate is presently 3.1% with apprentices counting as employed. The main effect of Germany’s apprenticeship and job-sharing programs is to jigger the unemployment figures to make them look lower.

What we really need are more, better jobs. I don’t think that will happen without a tighter labor market than we presently have.

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