Private firms are reluctant to provide sufficient training in general skills although these skills are important in their own firm because employees can easily leave and use the skills in other firms. This failure is exacerbated by a general bias in the United States against supplying adequate training for low-skilled workers. The bulk of employer-provided training is directed to relatively high level managerial and technical employees. In addition, the high turnover rates and labor pirating endemic among small firms make them reluctant to finance even directly job-related skills. In many respects our public skills delivery system is the finest in the world.
Universities attract large numbers of foreign students, clear evidence of comparative quality.
A strong and growing community college system provides vocational skills. In the private sector, employers overall have increased their expenditures on training. The answer lies in the currently troubling outcomes in the American labor market that are, at least in principle, remediable by an effective employment and training system. Increasingly Unequal Wages . It is well known that the bottom has fallen out of the labor market for workers with a high school education or less.