Connecting Employers with Jobs Seekers in Today’s Economy

August 03, 2012

A job recruitment event near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in July.

This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.

About three hundred fifty thousand newly unemployed people signed up for financial assistance in the United States during the first week of July. The nation’s jobless rate was eight point two percent in both May and June.

Some employers say they would add employees if they could find workers with important technology skills. As VOA’s Jim Randle reports, some experts say better communication and technology could reduce this "skills gap."

US unemployment data - 2009 - 2012

Angel Gurria is head of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. He says even some well-educated people are having trouble finding work around the world.

ANGEL GURRIA: "There are unemployed graduates on the streets, while employers search in vain for people with the skills they need. There is an obvious mismatch here. And it is a paradox and a great tragedy."

OECD officials say more than forty-four million people are unemployed in the thirty-four wealthiest nations belonging to the organization.

In the United States alone, nearly thirteen million people are unemployed. But the country also has more than three point six million unfilled jobs. Experts say some positions are unfilled because those seeking work lack high-technology skills.