There’s no shortage of workers. There is a shortage of the kind of workers management wants to hire.

A few days ago, I posted a blog, Is there a job shortage in America? In it, I asked the questions, “Do we have a shortage of skilled workers or don’t we? What should we do about it?”

You have to look a little deeper to understand what’s happening to create what seems to be a contradiction. The Reuter’s article, “Help Wanted” highlights skills drain in U.S. had a few more clues, too. If you read the comments carefully, you see that the manufacturers are really just looking for younger workers.

It’s going to get worse. The Social Security Administration projects that …

In 2017 benefits owed will be more than taxes collected, and Social Security will need to begin tapping the trust funds to pay benefits. The trust funds will be exhausted in 2041.

(http://www.ssa.gov/pubs/10055.html)

Because we’re headed for a train wreck, and also because the “baby boomers” of my generation still want to work, we’re going to have to figure this out.

I believe that there is a pervasive prejudice, call it “age-ism” if you like, that is more deeply entrenched than any “color line” or “gender bias”. The only solution is for America as a whole to come to terms with this and call it what it is. Employers are prejudiced against older people. And since more people who live in Color Country are older people, that means they’re prejudiced against us.

To begin making progress against color prejudice and gender bias, we have had to pass tough laws. I think that’s what it’s going to take this time too. But it’s also going to take a simple recognition of the nature of the problem and a sense of national outrage.

Sometimes, things balance out because of forces built into the system too. As younger people start paying more and more for Social Security benefits, maybe they’ll start asking more questions about, “Why isn’t grandpa working?” It couldn’t hurt to ask.