US / LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner on Fixing the skills gap

The U.S. faces a “widening skills gap,” LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner said during a fireside chat at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference in San Francisco. Our unemployment rate is sitting at 7.5 percent, while we have 3.8 million jobs available.

The fix? Education and immigration reform.

Weiner lauded the work of websites like the Khan Academy and Code.org in leveraging technology to improve students’ experiences in the classroom. But he also pushed for more vocational training, saying these jobs could have an “immediate impact” on the economy.

Weiner said that immigration reform in the U.S. must be achieved, arguing that many jobs go unfilled because the bar for international talent to work in the U.S. is too high.

“Forty percent of the Fortune 500 was founded by immigrants,” Weiner said. “Immigration reform is a necessity.”

Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor. Read the whole story at 

via LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner: How to fix the US skills gap, map the world’s economy – Silicon Valley Business Journal.