A skilled worker is any worker who has
special skill, training, knowledge, and
ability in their work. A skilled worker
may have attended a college, university
or technical school. Or, a skilled
worker may have learned their skills on
the job. Examples of skilled labor
include software development,
paramedics, police officers, physicians,
crane operators, painters, plumbers,
craftsmen, and accountants. These
workers can be either blue-collar or
white-collar workers, with varied levels
of training or education.
History
In the northern region of the United
States, craft unions may have served as
the catalyst to ferment a strong
solidarity in favor of skilled labor in
the period of the Gilded Age.
In the early 1880s, the craft unions of
skilled workers walked hand in hand with
the Knights of Labor but the harmony did
not last long and by 1885, the Knights'
leadership became hostile to trade
unions. The Knights argued that the
specialization of industrialization had
undermined the bargaining power of
skilled labor. This was partly true in
the 'eighties but it had not yet made
obsolete the existence of craft
unionism.
"...The impact of scientific management
upon skilled workers should not be
overstressed, especially in the period
before World War I."
The period between 1901 and 1925 signals
the rise and fall of the Socialist Party
of America which depended on skilled
workers. In 1906, with the publication
of The Jungle, the most popular voice of
socialism in the early 20th century,
Upton Sinclair gave them ignorant
"...Negroes and the lowest foreigners
—Greeks, Roumanians, Sicilians and
Slovaks" hell.
There was a divergence in status within
the working class between skilled and
unskilled labor due to the fall in
prices of some products and the skilled
workers' rising standard of living after
the depression of 1929. Skilled workers
were the heart of the labor movement
before World War I but during the 1920s,
they lost much of their enthusiasm and
the movement suffered thereby.
In the 20th century, in Nazi Germany,
the lower class was subdivided into:
agricultural workers,
unskilled and semi-skilled workers,
skilled craft workers,
other skilled workers and
domestic workers.
After the end of World War II, West
Germany surpassed France in the
employment of skilled labor needed at a
time when industrialization was sweeping
Europe at a fast pace. West Germany's
preponderance in the training of skilled
workers in technical schools, was the
main factor to outweigh the balance
between the two countries. In the period
between 1950 and 1970, the number of
technicians and engineers in West
Germany rose from 160,000 to
approximately 570,000 by promoting
skilled workers through the ranks so
that those who were performing skilled
labor in 1950 had already become
technicians and engineers by 1970.
In the first decade of the 21st century,
the average wage of a highly skilled
machinist in the United States of
America is $3,000 to $4,000 per month.
In China, the average wage for a factory
worker is $150 a month.
Overview
While most jobs require some level of
skill, "skilled workers" bring some
degree of expertise to the performance
of a given job. For example, a factory
worker who inspects new televisions for
whether they turn on or off can fulfil
this job with little or no knowledge of
the inner workings of televisions.
However, someone who repairs televisions
would be considered a skilled worker,
since such a person would possess the
knowledge to be able to identify and
correct problems with a television.
In addition to the general use of the
term, various agencies or governments,
both federal and local, may require
skilled workers to meet additional
specifications. Such definitions can
affect matters such as immigration,
licensure and eligibility for travel or
residency. For example, according to
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration
Services, skilled worker positions are
not seasonal or temporary and require at
least two years of experience or
training.
Skilled work varies in type, education
requirements and availability. Such
differences are often reflected in
titling, opportunity, responsibility and
salary.
Both skilled and non-skilled workers are
vital and indispensable for the
smooth-running of a free-market and/or
capitalist society. According to Alan
Greenspan, former Chairman of the
Federal Reserve Bank, "...Enhancing
elementary and secondary school
sensitivity to market forces should help
restore the balance between the demand
for and the supply of skilled workers in
the United States."
Generally, however, individual skilled
workers are more valued to a given
company than individual non-skilled
workers, as skilled workers tend to be
more difficult to replace. As a result,
skilled workers tend to demand more in
the way of financial compensation
because of their efforts. According to
Greenspan, corporate managers are
willing to bid up pay packages to
acquire skilled workers as they identify
the lack of skilled labor as one of
today's greatest problems.
Education
Education can be received in a variety
of manners, and is acknowledged through
various means. Below is a sampling of
educational conventions..
On-the-job training -
Apprenticeship -
Vocational certification -
Associate Degree -
Higher Apprenticeship -
Undergraduate Degree -
Professional Degree -
Graduate Degree -
professional examination-(lawyer,
accountant)
Electronics
In American industry, there has been a
change in the concentration of skilled
workers from the areas of past economic
might e. g. steel, automobile, textile
and chemicals to the more recent
industry developments e. g. computers,
telecommunications and information
technology which is commonly stated to
represent a plus rather than a minus for
the American standard of living.
Procurement
Due to globalization, regional shortages
of skilled workers, migration,
outsourcing, and other factors, the
methods of procuring skilled workers has
changed in recent years.
Migration
All countries are in a process of change
and transition which makes possible the
migration of skilled workers from places
of lower to higher opportunities in
training and better working conditions.
Although materialistic rewards play a
role in skilled workers migration, it is
the lack of security, opportunity and
suitable rewards in the homeland that
fundamentally makes this massive
movement of people possible, going from
places of lesser development to affluent
societies.
Some developing countries see the
migration of domestically trained
professionals abroad not as a drain but
as a gain, a "brain bank" from which to
draw at a price; for these
professionals, on their return with
their accumulated skills, would
contribute to the growth of the
homeland; cultural factors favor the
return of these professionals for a
short or a long while.
Canada Skilled Worker immigration
On January 1, 2015, the Government of
Canada implemented the Express Entry
Immigration system under the Economic
Class including the Federal Skilled
Worker Program.nder Express Entry,
Federal Skilled Workers across 347
eligible occupations who meet minimum
entry criteria, submit an expression of
interest profile to the Express Entry
Pool. The profiles of candidates in the
pool are ranked under a Comprehensive
Ranking System.
South Africa
Under Apartheid, the development of
skilled workers was concentrated on the
white inhabitants but after the
socio-political upheaval of the 1990s,
these same skilled workers are
emigrating, a highly sensitive subject
in contemporary South African Society.
The media in South Africa has
increasingly covered the "brain drain"
in the 1990s. Starting in 1994, when a
democratically elected government took
control of the reins of power, official
South African statistics show a greater
emigration of skilled workers. The
validity of this data has been
questioned.
European Union
The European Union brought policy into
force that paved the way for skilled
workers from outside the Union to work
and live in the EU under the Blue Card
Scheme. The key reasons for introducing
this policy are an ageing population in
general and an increasing shortage of
skilled workers in many member states.
Highly skilled workers migration
intensity
The demand for Information Technology
skilled workers is on the rise. This has
led to a lessening of the immigration
restrictions prevalent in various
countries. Migration of skilled workers
from Asia to the United States, Canada,
the United Kingdom and Australia is
common, specially among students and the
temporary migration of IT skilled
workers. Data shows, however, that the
migration of skilled workers from
Canada, Germany, the United Kingdom and
France to the United States is only
temporary and is more like a brain
exchange than a "brain drain".
World Bank Policy on Fair Exchange
Brain Drain literature focuses mainly on
the high cost of skilled migration for
the homeland or sending country. This
loss can be partly offset if the
migration is only temporary. Developing
countries invest heavily in education.
However, temporary migration can
generate a substantial remittance of
capital flow to the homeland. This flow
of capital plus the additional knowledge
gained would do more than compensate the
homeland for the investment made
originally in educating the skilled
worker. The key to temporary migration
is a change in the trade and immigration
policies of the receiving country and a
stepping-up of the demands of the
sending country for the return migration
of skilled workers.
See also
The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of
Capitalism, an essay written by Max
Weber
Bangladesh Association of International
Recruiting Agencies
Automation
Blue-collar worker
Deskilling
Scientific management
Unionization
Professional
Tradesman
References
= Bibliography=
External links
Torpey, Elka. "High wages after high
school - without a bachelor's degree".
Occupational Outlook Quarterly. Bureau
of Labor Statistics.
