This lack of investment in jobs is bound to fail the objectives governments set. Trade unionists criticised early claims of job creation as cynical attempts to fool the public, and history has proven them correct. Employers love the idea of workers competing rather than co-operating with each other, so they use this kind of antagonistic language. What they meant by 'enhanced competitiveness' was improved skills to make workers more attractive to employers. In any case many 'trainees' end up doing six months of very basic work, learning practically nothing to equip themselves for a career.
Unemployment is rife in almost all countries.
Many well intentioned academics and government advisors in Asia are now advocating the same techniques that have continued to fail in the West for more than twenty years. Instead these experts encourage cheap labour schemes which force welfare recipients to work for community care services. There is an alternative. It has been suggested that investment should be switched from unsustainable short term construction or capital intensive projects to social welfare projects, which are labour intensive and create micro-economies of their own. These are much more likely to be sustainable and successful.