Joblessness not due to skills gap, experts say

The starting wage in manufacturing in the seven-county Pittsburgh region fell from $19,855 in the beginning of 2009, half a year before the end of the Great Recession, to $18,828 this January, or $3,000 less than what the wages would have been if they kept pace with inflation 4 ½ years into the recovery.

“Every time you hear someone say ‘I can’t find the workers I need,’ add the phrase ‘at the wage I want to pay’,” said Heidi Shierholz, an economist for the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington, D.C., economic research organization.

People are choosing not to work because the pay is too low. Not surprising.