http://www.smh.com.au/national/its-boom--and-gloom--in-the-west-20110424-1dt2i.html
In this article, Jo Studdert discusses “the resources boom” and the shortage of engineers and other skilled workers in Australia. The article was written roughly a year ago, but there is still a shortage of workers and excess of resources. An article on the Sydney Morning Herald website confirms that this issue is ongoing. It seems that because these skilled employees are so few in numbers, they feel they should be paid a comparatively steep salary. Studdert refers to two of the issues that have resulted due to this phenomenon. Employers are having to compromise the quality of employees they hire and due to the competitive market, workers will change jobs frequently. This makes it difficult for employers to fund projects when they are having to pay so much to hire and train workers. The resource boom has been ongoing for the last couple of years. Such an event is referred to as the Dutch disease which is a concept that address the relationship between the exploitation and focal shift from manufacturing to the mining of natural resources. So the issue in Australia is that they have discovered a large amount of mineable natural resources, but have no way of extracting them because they do not have enough properly trained workers. According to Studdert, there were only 60 draglines in Australia at the time, all of which were in use. The consequence of the draglines constantly being in use is that no new, needed workers can be trained to increase the amount of minerals mined. From this article my idea of how separate the world's economies are is more clear. While the job market for engineers in the States is competitive, jobs are readily available. Desperation for engineers in the States has not hit yet. In Australia they are desperate for skilled workers and engineers. Here we have graduates with masters working at fast food restaurants. If we were to globalize our economies, while no country would become and economic superpower, there would not be high unemployment rates, nor employee shortages.
The article I wrote about also discussed Australia’s future in natural resources. It would seem that this blessing for Australia could mean a blessing for workers in other nations who are looking for jobs. If Australia has a demand for engineers and other skilled workers to mine these resources, then I think America now has a new natural resource, skilled workers. I think Australia would be a very pleasant place to work, especially as engineer. The high demand for engineers in Australia, and other developing nations for that matter, means higher salaries and wealthier, happier engineers who are working in a global business market. (ENGR 103)
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