You would have to be living under a rock to not know that our current economic state has left literally millions of people without a job or in search of a new one. Yet, according to a recent article in the New York Times, there is one broad area of employment where job opportunities are still quite abundant: skilled labor.

While there are certainly plenty of people applying for skilled labor position – particularly since so many have found themselves out of employment opportunities within their white collar fields – employers are finding it difficult to fill these positions. Why? Because performing skilled labor tasks to the level of expectation is not as simple as many would like to believe.

Take Chris McGrary, who is the manager at Cianbro Corporation, as an example. When McGrary set out to hire 80 welders, it took him 18 months to fill all of the positions because most of the applicants simply couldn’t complete the welding test successfully. Even many of those who had years of experience were unable to create the flawless welds that are needed in the company’s oil refinery section.

McGrary isn’t the only manager having difficulty filling open job positions. Despite the fact that the national unemployment rate has risen to 9.4% – which is the highest rate we have seen in almost 30 years – many employers are struggling to find candidates to fill skilled labor positions and other specialty fields that take years to master. Some of the fields that are reporting difficulty in finding qualified candidates include:

· Civil Engineer
· Critical Care Nurse
· Electrical Lineman
· Geotechnical Engineer
· Respiratory Therapist
· Special Education Teacher
· Welder

This is not to say that there aren’t people going to school for some of these fields, but employers are looking for individuals with experience as well. When referring to the field of civil engineering, for example, Larry Jacobson, who is the executive director of the National Society of Professional Engineers, told the New York Times that “What’s missing are enough licensed professionals who have worked at least five years under experienced engineers before taking the licensing exam.”

So, what has lead to this decline of skilled laborers within the pool of potential employees? Many experts agree that most young people are feeling pressure to go to college in order to earn a four-year bachelor’s degree, which has caused them to steer clear of occupational training. Furthermore, those who do get the necessary training often lack the experience because their jobs are outsourced before they are able to gain a significant amount of experience. As a result, they head back to school to learn a new skill before they ever master the one they originally went to school to learn.