[dkural]

There a literally millions of open positions in the US economy, and millions of upper-middle class liberal-college educated jobless millennials who can't be bothered to master these STEM fields to qualify. They all want to be an aid worker & save the world or something, or to be paid for playing a banjo. The only reason half of the people even get jobs is better qualified, harder working foreigners are kept out of the United States with immigration barriers. Dear whiny millennial: It's going to get much worse.

[djur]

"literally millions of open positions in the US economy": And almost four times as many unemployed people seeking work. Those open positions numbers are based on self-reporting, too, and they don't account for whether companies are actively seeking candidates, are offering a competitive salary, or are expecting reasonable qualifications. Lots of companies would love to hire busloads of experts at a bargain rate if they were available, but in the absence of a bumper crop of cheap geniuses they're happy to stand pat.

Surveys have shown that companies are having more trouble hiring people who have enough relevant experience than people with sufficient educational qualifications or technical skills [1]. To the extent there's a structural unemployment problem in the US, it's a bootstrapping problem -- too few entry-level positions in professional fields to supply the long-term need for experienced workers in those fields. This fits with my anecdotal observations of my 20-something friends -- their BAs won't even get them on the bottom of the ladder.

"who can't be bothered to master these STEM fields": Try: can't afford training in those fields. Try: can't get a job in those fields without years of experience.

[1]: http://business.time.com/2012/06/04/the-skills-gap-myth-why-...

[dkural]

This would be more credible if I didn't find qualified candidates who are 20 years old with skills + knowledge many in their 30s lack. I have nothing against a liberal arts degree, but not teaching yourself / taking computer science, mathematics, statistics during college automatically disqualifies you from many white collar jobs requiring strong quantitative reasoning skills. This is not about on-the-job experience, it's about basic skills.

[rjbwork]

The previous generations didn't exactly do anything to help us realize this reality. Hell, I feel like I won the roulette wheel of life sometimes in that my CS degree, which I naturally graduated towards, is in great demand. And other kids were pushed equally strongly to their history, sociology, philosophy, and english degrees.

[dkural]

Instead of blaming parents for 'no one told us', a second option would be look around and ask: How does philosophy, history, sociology, english help me do something in a company, besides HR, Sales, Marketing, and with luck, Management? What exactly did your friends think they'd do with their degrees, vis-a-vis getting a job?