Even as companies shed jobs, there's a mismatch between workers available and skills required. That has lead to the Portland Tribune of Oregon to warn of a workforce crisis.

Sreya Sarkar of the Cascade Policy Institute cautions against expanding government-run job training programs, though. "The kind of workforce training required today can be best imparted by business operators, not government bureaucrats."

"Instead of complaining about the shrinking public funding for workforce development," she writes, "social and business entrepreneurs in Portland should brainstorm creative training models to prepare the future workforce."

There is, of course, one "workforce development" that government agencies do all the time, and often not that well. "Despite the fact that about $10,000 are spent per student per year in Oregon public schools, nearly 70% of all incoming community college freshmen require corrective classes before they can take normal college courses."