[PEN-L:3790] Re: Training's not the answer

["Rosenberg, Bill" <ROSENBER@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

There was a very interesting article in the New York Review of Books,
29 Feb, p47-52, "The New, Ruthless Economy", by Simon Head. It gave
considerable detail on how earnings of non-supervisory workers in the
U.S. have fallen while productivity has risen, relating that to "lean
production", "reengineering" and TQM/Denning type techniques. The
main theme was that higher productivity has not been rewarded
with higher wages, but Head also concludes that

     "Retraining programs are certainly necessary to help discharged
     workers aquire new skills, often skills involving some form of
     computer processing. But the requirements of the new
     mass-production economy make themselves felt most strongly among
     the younger people entering the labor market. The economy of
     lean production has no need for a large and growing supply of
     younger workers who have had the kind of German-style training
     for technically advnaced production work that so attracts
     Clinton and Reich...."

Bill


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