NOT SEEKING ALIENATED POETS. The editorial board at the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel notes that middle class jobs are going begging.

Bucyrus International, for example, the South Milwaukee maker of heavy equipment for the surface mining industry, has 300 openings for welders and machinists - a result of its healthy business with China and India. But the company is having a hard time finding enough people willing to do jobs that pay on average $22 an hour.

But it's not just Bucyrus. A study released last month by the Center for Workforce Development at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, found that work force quality was the top concern of area manufacturers. An annual survey of business executives by the lobbying group Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce found similar results.

If the current wave of shortages is a concern, it's likely that an even larger one is about to crash ashore. Baby boomers are beginning to retire, which will hit manufacturers particularly hard. As an example, most skilled workers at Bucyrus are in their 50s, says the company's top executive, Timothy Sullivan. The region may be short thousands of workers in the coming years.

Memo to academic advisors: Befuddled area studies and general education majors can't carry water for a patternmaker. Heck, a lot of tenured professors couldn't carry water for a patternmaker.