Is the Skills Crisis a hoax?

Recently several news and blog posts have discussed with over 13 million unemployed US workers not able to locate a job the question of whether there is a skill shortage hoax or does employers truly have challenges to fill the estimated 3.5 million open positions. What do you think? Is it really a hoax? Are companies attendng job fairs, advertizing for vacancies with no jobs to fill? According to NAM 82% of companies can not find qualfied talent. Are the technical and community college programs aligning to the needs of their area employers? Many community college leaders constantly complain that their less popular classes have jobs and many of their popular classes have limited options. What should they to fill those offerings? Should education centers make the painful decision to drop popular classes and not receive those revenue streams and only offer courses where jobs are available but may have limited attendance? What can they do to better market their services? With schools and college getting ready to start a new year, are the aspirations of our youth aligned to the needs of employers? Everyone tells the kids to pursue education on what makes them happy. Which is important but being able to draw, sing or dance may or may not yield a paycheck,right? Do you feel that enough companies invest time in the educational system with both educators and students to build the quality workforce that they need?