Unemployed… and obsolete?

Later today, President Obama heads to Western New York as a part of his ?White House to Main Street? tour.

He is scheduled to tour Industrial Support, Inc., and talk with employees from the small manufacturing company in downtown Buffalo. This comes on the heels of Wednesday’s announcement by Senators John Kerry (D-Mass) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn) to unveil a long awaited energy bill that they hope will create millions of energy related jobs throughout the country.

So while jobs are at the top of Washington’s agenda, the question we’re asking is: What happens to those people whose job skills are for positions or industries that are becoming obsolete?

Is it possible that, even in the face of rising economic indicators, many jobless Americans will be left behind by legislative efforts to create and promote a new American infrastructure?

Part of the problem is not simply that there aren’t as many jobs out there as there are people who want them, but that the American work force is trained for jobs that no longer exist.

John Schmitt is a labor economist at the Center for Economic Policy Research where he studies economic inequality, unemployment, and the new economy. He says that the problem of American unemployment has been slowly approaching for a while, and that much of the proposed legislation will not fix the systemic problems our country’s jobless are facing.

We’re also joined by Cynthia Norton. After working as an executive assistant for more than 30 years, she is currently unemployed. Cynthia says that she’s been looking for jobs in all the right places, but that the work just isn’t there.