Jobs in the New Economy--President Barack Obama's Messages

President Barack Obama, in his first State of the Union address last night made jobs a number one priority and asked the Senate for a job bill incorporating what the House has already proposed.  In the details below the headlines, President Obama spoke about creating new "green" jobs and talked about lots of construction, railroad, and nuclear jobs.  He did not say much about jobs for the experienced middle manager who won't have a new job to go to nor an old job to go back to.  Small Business can do much to create new jobs and the proposals of the Obama administration for Small Business are no where near as clear as the ideas for construction and energy jobs. 

President Obama stressed that he wanted to support Community Colleges--they will play a critical role in helping adults adjust to new jobs. 

A key area for growth for small businesses is for independent consultants with change management and training backgrounds to network in order to work with emerging technologies and to create the job training new employees will need for these jobs.  As they do that they can look for contracts or grants from the Federal government to provide appropriate training to help people step into these new jobs as they are created.

Steve Jobs, in promoting the new iPad, spoke about many of the innovations Apple has provided since 1976.  This kind of technology could well be the baseline for new training initiatives and for education in K-12, community college, and university systems.