So my husband is a Metallurgical Engineer, he makes far more than $20.00 per hour. Of course in Wyoming you could live fairly well on $41,000 a year I guess, but I've spend a winter in Wyoming and other than Jackson Hole's skiing, it sucked!

Does America have a skills problem, well the answer is yes.  We've done a lousy job in preparing our population for the many technical jobs that are widely available.

I recently went back to work after taking four years off, four years I needed off. I'd saved all the money I needed to take those four years off too. I do specialized data migrations and individualized CRMS programming for mostly non-profit organizations.   I was ready to work again after four years of bike riding and vacation bliss. When I was ready to go back to work it took me less than one week to get a job, I applied for the position which was advertised on craiglist on a Sunday, was called on Tuesday, was interviewed on  Wednesday, went to Montana on Thursday and was offered the position on Friday .  And I was back at work 2 weeks after the offer. It is an argument for people to obtain much more technical training.

And if more people had solid technical skills positions there would be jobs for them. Right now Microsoft is hiring 2000 people, Amazon is hiring 5,000 people and Google is also hiring 5,000 people, this is here in the Seattle area.

However, they have a difficult time filling those positions because we aren't training enough skilled workers. Oh and they pay much better than Miss Wyoming's pay scale, in fact in some cases they are paying large signing bonuses in order to attract skilled workers.

Looking at this, I suspect you might have a bit of a New York prejudice or skew on what you consider a good salary to be; note my bold:

Welder Salary

Average Welder salaries for job postings nationwide are 48% lower than average salaries for all job postings nationwide.
Average Salary of Jobs with Related Titles

Fabrication Welder	$31,000
Combination Welder	$40,000
Welder Fabricator	$36,000
Welder Helper	$34,000
Welder Mechanic	$35,000
Welder Mig Tig	$30,000
Spot Welder	$22,000
Fabricator Welder	$37,000
Stick Welder	$35,000
Fitter Welder	$40,000
Mechanic Welder	$40,000
Welder Fitter	$34,000
Census Type Work	$45,000
Certified Welder	$37,000
Production Welder	$32,000

I ended up looking this up mainly because of your argument that people won't want to learn these kind of skilled labor jobs unless they pay much better. Something about it just didn't ring quite right with me (atypically, for one of your arguments.)

Turns out the salary she is offering is sort of a median nationwide for all jobs.

On this scale, $5,000 increase would be a lot, but I suspect $45,000 plus benefits wouldn't make someone who isn't interested in welding at $40,000 become interested in learning it, and I suspect that increase wouldn't impress you, either? You'd still be making the same argument that it's not an attractive enough wage to get people interested? Do you think welders should be paid more than like 75% of what other people get? How much would you think it necessary to get people interested?

It's one thing to suggest that we get a little wage inflation going for lot of people in lots of jobs, instead of wage deflation, so that everyone can spend more and rev the economy But it's quite another to suggest salaries rise to a level where certain jobs are attractive enough that a lot more people want to learn the skills.

To go back to Friedman's piece, I think this is a key thing to takeaway:

Moreover, in small manufacturing businesses like hers, explained Tapani, “unlike a Chinese firm that does high-volume, low-tech jobs, we do a lot of low-volume, high-tech jobs, and each one has its own design drawings. So a welder has to be able to read and understand five different design drawings in a single day.”

And I don't think it is a bad thing that he takes it upon himself to pound away at this point from time to time. You may disagree with his prescriptions for solving this problem, but it's an issue that needs to be addressed It jumped right out at me as being the same issue as this:

The Trade-Off That Created Germany’s Job Miracle, September 24, 2012

German Small Businesses Reflect Country's Strength, August 13, 2012

That you can either go protectionist in a globalized world and go back to manufacturing everything in big factories in your own country or you can go with the flow and do niche manufacturing in small businesses which require more skills from labor

Another point I think people should be reminded of as regards this whole discussion: it  was never the case with skilled labor that entry level and journeymen are paid as much as masters, it's basically traditional in the history of civilization that you don't get paid as much as a master while you are learning the craft. You're going to have a hard time changing that notion.  In the Friedman example, she's willing to pay high end of standard to train someone to more exacting skills.

This story is disturbing on many levels.  

The one that bothers me most is that  the Tapani bid on and won a contract to armor Humvees without already having the capacity to complete the work.  Then there is the question of who awarded her the contract apparently without confirming that capacity.  I mean, it is armoring Humvees.

Was Tapani unaware of the complexity of the job when she bid or unaware of the 'unskilled' training levels of the labor pool she would be drawing from?  I do applaud her for finding a single-mom Rosie Riveter with the skills and ability to train people in-house.  I certainly hope Rosie is paid as well as someone with all the 'right' certifications.

Then there is this condescending and clueless statement from Friedman:

Who knew? Welding is now a STEM job — that is, a job that requires knowledge of science, technology, engineering and math.

I find I cannot actually respond to that without obscenities just now.  Maybe later.

Here is something maybe Friedman (and you) should have checked out before writing:  

Welders, Cutters, Solderers, and Brazers : Occupational Outlook Handbook : U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

Oh, and thanks for the early morning bp boost.