4. Vocation and Fitness
Assessing the physical fitness of workers for a given task is fairly straightforward, as it deals with capabilities that can readily be witnessed or demonstrated: a man who is incapable of lifting a weight is unfit for employment as a longshoreman. But there are also mental qualities that make a man fit for some forms of work but unfit for others, not all of which are easily demonstrated or assessed.
Granted, the term "qualities" is vague and necessarily so because they are not clearly understood. The term covers the habitual traits of personality, the features of temperament, a man's moral character, his intelligence, the collected wisdom of his life's experience, his capacity for creative thought - and likely a number of other qualities can be added to this brief list.
In practical terms, we seek rightness of fit between a man and a position, but do so in the most vague and obscure of ways - psychology attempts to name the qualities, to assess the degree to which certain qualities are capable of producing success at a given task, and the degrees to which an individual possesses them, such that they can be more accurately matched.
The error of employment arises from the failure to perform this analysis thoroughly and accurately. We hire a man who seems "right" for a job and do not discover until some time later that we have made a very bad choice. If our estimation is correct, then the result is mutually beneficial, as that man is happy and productive in his work.
Capabilities Assessment
Our ability to match men to occupations is compounded by a number of difficulties, chief among which is the accuracy of assessment: people know very little about themselves and their abilities - it is particularly pronounced in the young, who think themselves capable of anything, but is also present in the old who, beaten down by life, underestimate themselves. Once a man is put to work, he soon discovers the truth - but by that time it is often too late.
A young man may become a sailor, thinking himself quite capable, only to discover that he is color blind and cannot sense the gentle differences in the blues and greens of the ocean to differentiate open water from a dangerous reef. By the time he discovers this, his ship has sailed, and may have sunk.
The complexity of work in the present day is a particular problem in that a young man may invest a great deal of effort and time in preparing himself to undertake a given profession - and once he discovers that he has made a bad choice, there is no opportunity to re-educate himself for something different.
A general education is a partial answer for this: in applying himself to various fields of study in school (science, mathematics, and the arts) a child can discover where his strengths and weaknesses lie, as a means of discovering where he should apply himself to become successful. His parents and teachers may help him to discover that he is excellent at math and hopeless at music, and guide him toward a career in accountancy rather than entertainment.
However, modern education has become so mercenary and devoted to specialization rather than generalization, that a child may not have the opportunity to explore and assess his talents. Moreover there is the insistence that a child can be made to be competent at anything - that it is merely a matter of discipline and practice for a boy who cannot draw to learn to do so, not merely adequately but expertly, rather than applying himself to areas in which he shows talent. This is a wonderful notion, but thoroughly disproven by reality.
The choice of vocation is as important, and perhaps more, as the choice made in marriage - as the decision will determine the constant and ongoing conditions of a man's life. Few things can constitute such a constant source of misery than a wife or a job that is unpleasant. Both decisions should be based on far more knowledge and deliberation than they presently are.
Vocational Assessment
A second reason that we fail to match men to work is in lack of understanding of the requirements of the work. That is to say that the requirements of a job that can be readily witnessed are very easy to assess, but the mental capacities and disciplines that are required are not so. An artist requires more than the ability to hold a brush, and more than the ability to drag it across the canvas to depict a shape accurately - he must be able to conceive a painting and the way in which visual depictions represent complex ideas.
Returning to the example of the color-blind sailor - had his captain paused to consider the importance of visual acuity, the applicant might have been tested prior to being hired into the position of sailor, and such a man would never have been put into a position that demanded of him more than he was capable of doing.
Whereas the mistaken assessment of the individual is considered the fault of an individual, in societies in which a man chooses his profession, vocational assessment can only be the fault of the employer, and a factor in a poor hiring decision.
And there is a trend in the present day that leads to poor vocational assessment: it is the problem of professional management. Young men who leave school with a degree that certifies their knowledge of business tend to know nothing of work, but are put into positions where they must hire and develop a company of men to do work they do not understand. The manager of a knitting factory knows nothing of knitting, but presumes the ability to select and command workers for the task he does not understand.
While the problem is pronounced, it is not particularly new. A young man of noble birth is often given command of a regiment of soldiers who know far more about soldiering, but whose low status in society renders them ineligible to command, and places the in command of those who are unable. Perhaps the democratization of society, in which men rise by virtue of competence or merit, has the potential to end such folly.
Matching Men to Work
The final result is the correspondence of the two. It seems that there is a constant complaint by employers of a lack of good men for a given kind of work, though the nature of the work in which there is a shortage varies over time. Meanwhile, there is a constant complaint by laborers that there is a lack of opportunity in the world of employment for the skills they have to offer.
When it is apparent in the market that there is a lack of carpenters and high wages are offered to men with those skills. And then, a great number of boys eagerly prepare themselves for that profession - and a few years later when they are prepared to work, the market is overwhelmed with aspiring carpenters and instead lacks blacksmiths.
Given the division and specialization of occupations, it is unlikely that we can return to the time when a man could move quickly and easily from one form of labor to the next except in the lowest ranks of unskilled laborers, of which there are always a glut.
This demonstrates a lack of centralized economic planning, or the foolishness of those who presume to undertake that task. It is also an unrealistic expectation that central planning alone can solve the problem - it would make it possible to train boys to professions in the appropriate professions, but would not solve the problem of natural skills and proclivities. That is, if it were predicted there was a need for ten thousand musicians, this does not mean there would be ten thousand youths who have the natural talent at singing to be trained to the profession.