by Calculated Risk on 5/12/2010 11:52:00 PM

Catherine Rampell at the NY Times has a story about the long term unemployed, and the skills mismatch: In a Job Market Realignment, Some Workers Left Behind

Millions of workers who have already been unemployed for months, if not years, will most likely remain that way even as the overall job market continues to improve, economists say. The occupations they worked in, and the skills they currently possess, are never coming back in style. And the demand for new types of skills moves a lot more quickly than workers — especially older and less mobile workers — are able to retrain and gain those skills.

There is no easy policy solution for helping the people left behind. The usual unemployment measures — like jobless benefits and food stamps — can serve as temporary palliatives, but they cannot make workers’ skills relevant again.

A sad story ...