With an increasing demand for highly skilled workers, this nation will

Argument:
The following appeared as part of an editorial in a campus newspaper:

“With an increasing demand for highly skilled workers, this nation will soon face a serious labor shortage. New positions in technical and professional occupations are increasing rapidly, while at the same time the total labor force is growing slowly. Moreover, the government is proposing to cut funds for aid to education in the near future.”

Discuss how well reasoned you find this argument. In your discussion, be sure to analyze the line of reasoning and the use of evidence in the argument. For example, you may need to consider what questionable assumptions underlie the thinking and what alternative explanations or counterexamples might weaken the conclusion. You can also discuss what sort of evidence would strengthen or refute the argument, what changes in the argument would make it more logically sound, and what, if anything, would help you better evaluate its conclusion.



Ans.
The author goes on to conclude that the nation will experience a shortage of labour in the coming times because the demand for workers who are highly skilled is growing. The author has based this conclusion on several faulty assumptions that make the argument weak and render the conclusion unacceptable.

First and foremost, just because the demand for workers is increasing now does not mean that will continue to increase in the future. There is a possibility that the demand will become stable and the after some time and unskilled workers can be trained and upskilled in such a way that they can fill the demand which has increased for a short period of time.

Secondly, just because the total labour force is growing slowly does not mean that the new positions in technical and professional occupation won't be possible to fill. It could very well be that the number of people qualified for technical and professional occupations are increasing whereas there is a significant decline in other kinds of workers, say the ones which require artistic skills. This could lead to an average decline but could still be an alternate explanation that the author has failed to address.

Another assumption rides on the fact that government aid is the only way people can learn the skills required for highly skilled professionals. There is a chance that private companies and wealthy benefactors are providing increased fund, due to which the government feels that they can cut the aid without suffering negative consequences. It is also possible that people can learn the skills without formal education programmes. For example, they could learn through internships or on the job trainings offered by the companies.

Hence, I would like to conclude my critique by pointing out the author has made many unreasonable assumptions which he/ she must address before the argument can be found convincing. Some of the ways the argument can be strengthened by the author is to show that the growth in demand will continue for a significant period of time. Also, the author must show that it is indeed the workers with skills required in professional and technical occupations are decreasing and not workers with other types of skills. The author must also prove that the reduction of government aid will actually result in a reduced number of highly skilled employees.