Unemployment and Job Creation Programs: Is there A Skills Gap?

The current unemployment rate (as of April 2013) of 7.6 percent nationally has not dropped following the last recession as quickly as it has in the past following previous recessions. Over the years there has been much discussion on causes and solutions regarding recessions and unemployment. The Federal government spends more than $ 18 billion a year on 47 different training programs in nine agencies. However, many employers comment that they cannot fi nd qualifi ed workers (Easton, 2011). More than three million jobs are vacant and employers are looking for workers to fi ll the positions (Easton, 2011), while there are approximately 14 million jobless workers who cannot fi nd jobs (Shierholz and Finio, 2011). This paper seeks to evaluate the government response to the high level of unemployment, to consider the possibility of a skills gap between job seekers and available jobs, and to describe some of the job creation programs that are currently in existence.