Scarcer Or Dumber?

AP (07.18.05):

"U.S. businesses increasingly are reporting shortages of skilled workers, suggesting the labor market is improving steadily despite the erratic pace of job creation over the last year. The National Association for Business Economics, which polled 103 corporate planners and financial analysts, said Monday that more than a third of them reported their companies had difficulty hiring skilled workers. That marked the highest level in four years, and was consistent with Federal Reserve surveys of economic conditions across the country." Poll Says More Companies Seeing Shortages of Skilled Labor

If that's true, then why would Toyota be building its latest plant in Canada? CBC News has the skinny (07.05.05):

"The level of the workforce in general is so high that the training program you need for people, even for people who have not worked in a Toyota plant before, is minimal compared to what you have to go through in the southeastern United States," said Gerry Fedchun, president of the Automotive Parts Manufacturers' Association, whose members will see increased business with the new plant. 'The educational level and the skill level of the people down there is so much lower than it is in Ontario,' Fedchun said." Toyota to build 100,000 vehicles per year in Woodstock, Ont., starting 2008

Nissan and Honda "have encountered difficulties getting new plants up to full production in recent years in Mississippi and Alabama due to an untrained - and often illiterate - workforce. In Alabama, trainers had to use 'pictorials' to teach some illiterate workers how to use high-tech plant equipment." Pictures. They had to use pictures.