Trade Adjustment Assistance is a scam, retraining for jobs that don't exist

[brentspeak]

Or, if any jobs exist, jobs in which most newly-trained workers will almost certainly never be hired for.

This might have been different back in the 60's through 90's, when there actually were many jobs which a newly-trained laid-off "trade affected" worker might step into. But those days are long gone.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/06/us/06retrain.html

Job Retraining May Fall Short of High Hopes

By MICHAEL LUO
Published: July 5, 2009

Tens of thousands of laid-off workers like Mr. Hutchins have turned to retraining as a lifeline. Yet for all the popularity of these government-financed programs, there are questions about whether they actually work, even as President Obama’s stimulus plan directs $1.4 billion more to retraining and other services for people who have lost their jobs.

snip

Nonetheless, a little-noticed study the Labor Department released several months ago found that the benefits of the biggest federal job training program were “small or nonexistent” for laid-off workers. It showed little difference in earnings and the chances of being rehired between laid-off people who had been retrained and those who had not.

In interviews, the authors of the study and other economists cited several reasons that retraining might not be effective. Many workers who have lost their jobs are older and had spent their lives working in one industry. In need of a job right away, many pick relatively short training programs, which often have marginal benefits. Job retraining is also ineffective without job creation, a point made by several economists who have long cautioned against placing too much stock in it. Finally, workers trying to pick a new field cannot predict the future of the labor market, especially in a time of economic upheaval.

snip

An examination by The New York Times of one group of laid-off workers — 36 people who finished their retraining at Macomb Community College just outside Detroit at about the same time as Mr. Hutchins, from May to August 2008 — found that at least 60 percent appeared either not to be working or to be in jobs unrelated to their training. Several had jobs but then lost them later, according to state wage records and interviews. And a review of wages for several employed workers before and after training showed that almost all had lost ground.

The primary reason why job retraining has failed, of course, is due to the dramatically shrunk economy -- caused mostly by the very same "free trade" agreements which were supposed to expand the economy (or so the corporate-owned politicians on both sides of the aisle have claimed for the past thirty years).

So, to sum up:

1) Because there's few or no positions to retrain for, job retraining assistance is wasted money;

2) Obama and his people -- and any Democrats supporting TPP -- are fully aware of this;

3) Despite being fully aware of this, the Obama White House is pushing for continued funding of TAA, apparently to express some token solidarity with the American workers they're helping corporations and the GOP to crush;

4) simply by virtue of asking for greatly increased TAA funding, Obama is really just acknowledging that these NAFTA-like free trade agreements actually lose jobs for American workers, not create them (therefore, doing the very opposite of what the agreements have been publicly touted to do).

The answer is to nix the pending further middle-class destroying TPP. However, that will not happen; Obama and the GOP are both hell-bent on continuing to run the nation over the cliff with corporate-sponsored trade liberalization. Unless you and your children and grandchildren are/will be among the lucky few who will win the dwindling secure middle class job lottery, get ready for a future of lifetime barely-scraping-by fitful employment.

[KG]

1. Retraining - one of the bigger turds shat out by the TPP and it's pimps

[pa28]

2. It's a way for Democratic politicians to rationalize the damage inflicted by trade deals.

If our representatives know TPP will leave lost jobs and ruined communities in it's wake they shouldn't be making those agreements in the first place.

"First do no harm" should be the rule.

[Recursion]

3. Well, the current jobs are going away TPP or not

They can go to Indonesia with a free trade agreement and retraining, or they can go to China with no free trade agreement and no free training. Or we can just wait five years until the robots do it.

[fredamae]

4. NAFTA/CAFTA Retraining

in the 1990's was a flop as well. Lower wages for those who Could find jobs within their labor market areas.

[Elwood P Dowd]

5. Yet the outright lies about the success of NAFTA and all the other so called "free trade" bills

keep coming as the repukes, DINOS, and corporate shills ratchet up support for TPP.

I either know or have met about dozen people who lost their jobs when factories moved to Mexico in the late 1990's and early 2000's. Not a single one has a job now commensurate in pay and benefits with their pre-NAFTA one.

[bbgrunt]

6. k and r. Needs to be acknowledged.

[CharlotteVale]

7. K&R

[brentspeak]

8. self-kick