Yesterday, I blogged briefly about the massive unemployment that we are seeing as the COVID pandemic sweeps through America. How these numbers will be resolved once the stay at home orders are lifted is yet to be determined. Many of these people will have to be retrained and find new opportunities as the jobs they held previously may be unavailable. While it is premature to predict what this will look like, may I offer a possibility.
As a Cyber Security technologist, I have often spoken of the shortage in the Cyber Security workplace. It is estimated that there are more than 2.5 million job openings in Cyber Security right now even through the COVID crisis. I predict we will see a huge shift in the service industry on the other side of this crisis and many people who work in these jobs will not be rehired. Maybe what we should be asking for in the next stimulus package is the beginning of a retraining stimulus package. Why not use this money, not to send checks to people but to train them in a new career field? I guess it goes back to the fisherman motto: Give a person a fish and they eat for a day but teach a person how to fish and you feed them for a lifetime. Maybe some people are not ready to retrain from some of these jobs but this conversation is necessary.
Like your thinking on that!
That’s a great idea. I’m able to from for the duration but I know many who are out of work. I mentioned something like this to a relative. Her reply was that not everyone is capable enough to learn these types of technical jobs. She said that’s why she was working in a restaurant in the 1st place. Personally, I think it’s more a matter of a lack of confidence than a matter of a lack of capability.