IN SPITE OF RECORD LEVELS OF UNEMPLOYMENT, jobs requiring highly skilled personnel are going unfilled, according to the Wall Street Journal.  (Note:  the WSJ publishes teasers and requires a subscription to read the rest of the article.  But Fox News repeated a significant amount of the article here.)  In an article titled “Help wanted”, journalist Ben Casselman reports that these jobs don’t necessarily require a college degree, but require some sort of special skills – network security and cyber maneuvers come to mind – and many of these skills can be obtained with a relatively short training course.  Sometimes the “skill” isn’t a skill at all, but is merely a willingness to engage in periodic business travel – something a surprising number of job candidates are not willing to do.

The lesson here is this:  a relatively brief training sesssion – ranging from a few days to a few months – can prepare most candidates for most of these jobs.