By Rick Pluta, Michigan Public Radio Network
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wkar/local-wkar-995678.mp3
UNIVERSITY CENTER, MI –
Governor Rick Snyder was at Delta College near Saginaw on Thursday to deliver a message on education and worker training. As Michigan Public Radio's Rick Pluta reports, the governor says there is a mismatch between the skills workers have, and what employers are looking for.
Governor Snyder says he state could immediately drop its jobless rate by filling 77,000 positions that are vacant because workers don't have the skills to fill them. The governor rolled out a web portal that will help people chart out a career path by identifying prospective employers and the skills they are looking for.
"We were missing the basics of economics," he says. "There's a demand side. Not to force people on a path, but to say: here's a better opportunity, a better match because you should want to go on that path because you know there's opportunity."
The governor also wants to allow some people to collect unemployment benefits while they start a business. And he says the state needs to focus more on helping veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan, who have a jobless rate that's almost three times higher than the state's overall unemployment rate.