To employers: There’s no perfect candidate
Regarding “ ‘Skills gap’ leaves high-tech jobs open” (News, Jan. 12), I have seen the issue of the so-called “skills gap” firsthand, and it’s time companies stop blaming the “lack of skills” out there and look at their actions.
There are literally thousands of high-skilled workers available for these jobs. Here are some easy solutions for companies looking for employees.
Raise compensation as the market seems to be demanding and you will find the right employees. That’s the way private enterprise works.
There are thousands of employees with skills (or the aptitude to learn them) similar to what these companies are looking for.
Show more of an open mind when hiring — and remember that the perfect candidate doesn’t exist, just like the perfect company doesn’t exist.
People are unable to relocate because they cannot sell their houses. Offer a corporate relocation program to address this and companies will find thousands of candidates.
Sharwin Kersh, Atlanta
It’s the economists who advise the politicians
I read with amusement the letter complaining about our politicians thinking that they understand markets better than economists (“Writing off debt is stealing from others,” Readers write, Opinion, Jan. 11).
What the writer probably doesn’t understand is that it’s the economists (such as Paul Krugman and other Keynesian economists) who are advising the politicians.
Just look at the economists who advise President Barack Obama.
That is the real reason for the debt problem.
Fred Hahn, Roswell
Pipeline puts profits above domestic good
“Fear over fuel prices justified” (ajc.com, Jan. 10) points out that last year, the U.S. exported 117 million gallons per day of petroleum products.
It states: “That means oil companies effectively reduced domestic supply of gasoline and other petroleum products” — driving up American prices.
We must recognize these are not “American” oil companies.
They are multinational corporations owing loyalty only to their own profit.
This is why pleas to get funding for a pipeline for Canadian oil to “help” America ring hollow.
Pipelines are for profit and to move oil to be sold to the highest bidder.
This ignores the history of leaks and property destruction from similar, shorter pipelines not running through America’s heartland.
Conservatives seem to feel corporate profits at the expense of the 99 percent of Americans is a desirable end. I do not.
Patrick Edmondson, Atlanta
