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There are eight point two MILLION job openings in America right now, and around seven million people actively looking for a job.
目前，美国有820万个职位空缺，约有700万人正在积极找工作。
There are also millions of American who have simply given up on even trying to look for a job, but still companies are complaining that they can't get the people they need.
还有数百万美国人甚至放弃了找工作，但公司仍在抱怨他们无法获得所需的人才。
There is one reason that has been used time and time again to explain all of this. A range of companies are looking at how to close the skills gap. Yep, the skills gap.
有一个原因被反复用来解释这一切。许多公司都在研究如何缩小技能差距。是的，就是技能差距。
There are people looking for work, and jobs on offer, but the skills of those people and the requirements of the jobs just don't line up.
有人在找工作，也有工作机会，但这些人的技能和工作要求就是不一致。
It's a simple elegant explanation to a major problem, but it's also almost entirely made up. 20-year-old Jesus Villegas is in the second year of his training.
这是对一个主要问题简单而优雅的解释，但它也几乎完全是编造的。20岁的Jesus Villegas正在接受第二年的培训。
He's building a career in advanced construction technology. Today's incomes gap is largely a skills gap.
他正在高级建筑技术领域建立自己的职业生涯。当今的收入差距主要是技能差距。
87% of Americans said that they are going to need to get skills and new training throughout their work life. It's really remarkable.
87%的美国人表示，他们将需要在整个工作生涯中获得技能和新培训。这真的很了不起。
The skills gap also known as the skills shortage, or just good old structural unemployment, is a convenient excuse for a lot of the major issues in todays job market that are often swept under the rug by businesses, politicians, and even economic statistics.
技能差距，又称技能短缺，或只是老式的结构性失业，是当今就业市场中许多主要问题的借口，而这些问题往往被企业、政客甚至经济统计数据掩盖起来。
If a hospital is hiring a doctor, but the only person in the town looking for a job has a degree in computer science,
如果一家医院正在招聘一名医生，但镇上唯一一个找工作的人拥有计算机科学学位，
then obviously that role is not going to be filled, regardless of how much time and effort the applicant has put into their education.
那么显然，无论申请人在教育上投入了多少时间和精力，这个职位都不会有人填补。
The argument that you would have seen is that this same problem is playing out everywhere across the world,
你可能已经看到的说法是，同样的问题在世界各地都在上演，
which is why even if companies claim to be desperate to hire people, you may struggle to find a job.
这就是为什么即使公司声称急需招聘员工，你也很难找到工作。
The whole argument conveniently shifts the blame of any labor market problems onto the workers because they are the ones that haven't trained the right skills or developed the right experience.
整个论点巧妙地将任何劳动力市场问题的责任推给工人，因为他们没有接受过正确的技能培训，没有积累正确的经验。
The first problem with this idea though is how the problem of the skills gap quietly slips away during the good times.
然而，这个观点的第一个问题是，技能差距问题在经济繁荣时期是如何悄然消失的。
Research published by economists from Harvard Northern University and the Federal Reserve found a striking relationship between unemployment and the experience that employers look for in their candidates.
Harvard Northern University和美联储经济学家发表的研究发现，失业率与雇主在应聘者身上寻找的经验之间存在着惊人的关系。
The team collected data on over 36 million job postings over 3 years and what they found was that the skills and experience required was almost directly proportional to the unemployment rate.
该团队在3年内收集了超过3600万个招聘信息的数据，他们发现所需的技能和经验几乎与失业率成正比。
In plain English, what this meant was that when there were lots of people looking for a job, all of a sudden the skills requirement for roles became a lot higher.
简而言之，这意味着当有很多人找工作时，职位的技能要求突然就高了很多。
And this is when people will start complaining about a skills gap.
这时人们就会开始抱怨技能差距。
But when unemployment is lower and there aren't that many people applying for jobs, suddenly the skills gap isn't such a big problem and companies are happy to hire whoever they can get.
但是当失业率较低且没有那么多人申请工作时，技能差距突然就不再是一个大问题，公司很乐意雇用他们能找到的任何人。
Now as long as they aren't discriminating based on protected classes, companies can basically hire whoever they want and ask for whatever skills they can.
现在，只要他们不基于受保护的阶层进行歧视，公司基本上可以雇佣他们想要的任何人，并要求他们能提供的任何技能。
If unemployment is high and they can be greedy with their job requirements, that's just business.
如果失业率高，他们可以贪婪地要求他们的工作，那只是生意。
But the problem is the myth of the skills gap is used to justify a lot of bad stuff. The first is simply lower wages.
但问题是，技能差距的神话被用来为许多不好的事情辩解。首先就是较低的工资。
If companies post a position with high skill requirements and they don't get any applicants that meet their unreasonably high bar,
如果公司发布了一个对技能要求很高的职位，而他们没有收到任何符合他们不合理高标准的申请人，
they can go back to the best applicant with a lower salary and benefit offer than advertised, pointing out the gaps in their skills as a reason for the lower offer.
他们可以重新找最好的申请人，提供比广告中更低的工资和福利，指出他们的技能差距是提供较低报酬的原因。
This is just basic salary negotiation tactics, but the myth of the skills gap makes it easier for companies to get away with this.
这只是基本的薪资谈判策略，但技能差距的神话让公司更容易逃脱惩罚。
A report by MIT found that most jobs advertised in America ask for skills like programming that were actually not required to perform the job.
麻省理工学院的一份报告发现，美国大多数招聘广告都要求具备编程等技能，而这些技能实际上并不是完成工作所必需的。
They look specifically at IT help-desk technicians that deal with computers. So most companies ask for programming skills.
他们专门关注与计算机打交道的IT帮助台技术人员。所以大多数公司都要求编程技能。
The thing is though most IT help-desk techs don't actually use programming for anything.
但问题是，大多数IT帮助台技术人员实际上并不使用编程来做任何事情。
But a lot of companies just assume that computers equal code and so make it a job requirement.
但很多公司只是假设计算机等于代码，所以把它作为工作要求。
The report actually found that programming was just as useful in manufacturing plants as it was in IT help-desk work.
报告实际上发现，编程在制造工厂和IT帮助台工作中同样有用。
But factory machine operators were far more likely to get on the job training on how to program their machines than IT workers who are just assumed to know how to code.
但工厂机器操作员接受机器编程在职培训的可能性远远高于IT工作者，因为IT工作者通常被认为懂得如何编码。
But lower wages are far from the worst thing that the myth of the skills gap has been us to push for.
但较低的工资远不是技能差距神话所导致的最糟糕的事情。
It's also been an incredible tool for lobbying on migration policy, education funding, and workplace protections.
它也是游说移民政策、教育资金和工作场所保护的不可思议的工具。
These are worth looking at one by one because you are probably going to start hearing a lot of familiar sound bites.
这些都值得一一研究，因为您可能会开始听到很多熟悉的声音。
So it's time to learn How Money Works to find out how the myth of the skills gap helps everyone but you.
所以现在是时候学习《金钱是如何运作的》来了解技能差距神话如何帮助所有人，除了您。
