January 27, 2012 in Blog by Amanda Sheckman

Jobs Missing

By Dirk Olin

The enduring American jobs crisis will dominate public debate in 2012, whoever emerges from the Republican primaries’ theater of the absurd. Indeed, the debate will rage long after the election. Structural and generational forces are at work that are far more important than the short-term fiscal and programmatic proposals on offer from the candidates.

Pay no attention to Bain Capital this or Solyndra that. What’s at issue are far more pedestrian, but foundational, dynamics: employee engagement, workforce sustainability, and old-fashioned job training.

On those points, consider Apple Inc. A couple of months ago, I noted the death of Apple founder Steve Jobs with a mixture of awe at his brilliance and bewilderment about much of his corporate ethos. Not to put too fine a point on it, the company treated many workers like dirt—both in the corporate headquarters, where a culture of intimidation often obtained and abroad, where the company abjectly ignored Chinese subcontractors who were likely sickened by their working conditions.

As the reins were passed with Jobs’ demise, I expressed my hope that new CEO Tim Cook would find the right practices to grow a healthier Apple.

On that front, two updates. After promising that Apple would not change under his tenure, Cook was almost immediately reported to be reforming promotion and reporting structures. He has also amped up communications with a workforce that he addresses as “Team.” What’s more, he launched the company’s first matching program for employee donations of up to $10,000 to nonprofits. No small change there.

Of equal or greater importance, in January Apple published its first-ever list of company suppliers, addressing issues of both the overworked (some to the point of suicide) and underage employees in Chinese factories. The move represents a blindingly welcome shift in the company’s transparency.

A more intractable problem, however, is one that was detailed in the Jan. 22 Business Section of The New York Times. Headlined “How the U.S. Lost Out on iPhone Work,” the piece explained that the lion’s share of those device’s manufacturing jobs had been offshored. And when, at a dinner a year ago, President Obama asked Steve Jobs straight out why those positions couldn’t be brought back to America, the CEO reportedly replied, “Those jobs are not coming back.”

One reaction to that reality came from Betsey Stevenson, the chief economist at the Labor Department until last September. “Companies once felt an obligation to support American workers, even when it wasn’t the best financial choice,” she said. “That’s disappeared. Profits and efficiency have trumped generosity.”

Sorry, but I’m not buying. Companies can be persuaded to act out of enlightened self-interest, but they’re not running their operations pro bono. As other sources explain, the real problems are two-fold. First, and as we will explore in future posts, a corporate and communitarian devotion to job training has all but evaporated in many sectors. Compounding that is globalization’s empowerment of the labor force arbitrageur.

But the remedy for the latter isn’t protectionism. That would be self-defeating. Fixing the former—through an investment in millenials and the emergent workforce—is the only logical and, yes, sustainable path out of these woods.

Which brings us, once again, to the 2012 HRO Today Forum, which will be held April 30 through May 1 in Washington, D.C. On top of the agenda: The Job-Skills Gap.

Come help fill the void. And start by posting your own ideas below: What innovative job training programs have you come across recently?