Even with high unemployment, some good jobs remain for the qualified

10.06.09
By Timothy Jones

With an unemployment rate hovering around 10 percent, many out-of-work Americans are finding it difficult to pay down their credit card debt and make their home loan payments. But while millions are out of work, it appears there are some well-paying jobs in the U.S. that can't get filled.

The Associated Press reports that jobs in nursing, engineering and energy research pay well above the national average with good benefits packages, but the companies with these job openings are still finding it difficult to fill positions.

Part of the problem, it seems, is that there is a disconnect between the people who are looking for work and the qualifications employers of these positions are looking for. Without the proper training, people can't just move from one career to another, says Sophia Koropeckyj, managing director of Moody's Economy.com.

"Workers are going to have to find not just a new company, but a new industry," she told the AP. "A 50-year-old guy who has been screwing bolts into the side of a car panel is not going to be able to become a health care administrator overnight."

For those people without the skills to land these well-paying and in-demand jobs the employment outlook does not look good.

Last week the Labor Department announced that the September unemployment rate had increased to 9.8 percent and many experts predict that this number will continue to increase into to the new year.

Over the weekend, former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said he anticipates that the unemployment rate will reach 10 percent before starting to taper off. That's a sentiment echoed by Eric Rosengre, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston president and CEO, who told Dow Jones that unemployment would remain high for the next two years before returning to "full employment."

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There are jobs, and money, for people with the right skills