Why Good Jobs are Going Unfilled

As manufacturing work gets more taxing, manufacturers are looking at a work force that is actually becoming less literate and less skilled.

My latest column for CNN.com examines the troubling shortage of skilled American workers.

As manufacturing work gets more taxing, manufacturers are looking at a work force that is actually becoming less literate and less skilled.

In 2007, ETS -- the people who run the country's standardized tests -- compiled a battery of scores of basic literacy conducted over the previous 15 years and arrived at a startling warning: On present trends, the country's average score on basic literacy tests will drop by 5 percent by 2030 as compared to 1992.

That's a disturbing headline. Behind the headline is even worse news.

Not everybody's scores are dropping. In fact, ETS estimates that the percentage of Americans who can read at the very highest levels will actually rise slightly by 2030 as compared to 1992 -- a special national "thank you" to all those parents who read to their kids at bedtime!

But that small rise at the top is overbalanced by a collapse of literacy at the bottom.

In 1992, 17 percent of Americans scored at the very lowest literacy level. On present trends, 27 percent of Americans will score at the very lowest level in 2030.

What's driving the deterioration? An immigration policy that favors the unskilled. Immigrants to Canada and Australia typically arrive with very high skills, including English-language competence. But the United States has taken a different course.

Click here to read the rest.