The conventional wisdom these days is that a large part of the unemployment problem comes from the mismatch between the skills that employers want and the skills that the unemployed have. This is supported by several studies of want ads and comparisons with the skills available among the unemployed.

Some economists are arguing that companies need to take on some of the blame. For instance, Peter Cappelli recently wrote an article in the Wall Street Journal saying that employers want too much-they want workers who can fill jobs right away without any training. He says that companies need to drop the ideal of finding perfect candidates and look for people who could do the job with a bit of training and practice. He suggests that companies (1) work with education providers; (2) bring back apprenticeships; (3) promote from within. 

The Entrepreneur Access to Capital Act (H.R. 2930) creates a crowdfunding exemption from SEC regulations for firms raising up to $5 million, with individual investments limited to $10,000 or 10 percent of an investor's annual income, whichever is lesser. It also preempts Blue Sky Laws and eliminates the application of the ban on general solicitation for issuers relying on the crowdfunding exemption.

Finally, it excludes crowdfunding investors from counting as shareholders for the purposes of calculating the 499-shareholder cap under 12(g) of the Securities Exchange Act. This Bill has passed the House and is being supported by the Obama Administration.

An example of crowdfunding is Kickstarter, a website where entrepreneurs can showcase their products. Mainer Charles Friedman had posted his design project, a iPad sleeve made from recycled sails, and has already recruited 83 backers and raised over $6000, which was his goal. In this case, backers are pre-paying for a product. View this here.

The reauthorization of SBIR/STTR has been included in the Senate version of the National Defense Authorization Act for FY2012, but not the House version. The conference committee is meeting this week, and pressure is being applied by certain House members to delete the SBIR language. Our own Senator Snowe has been an awesome backer of this effort. This is undoubtedly a good time for a short email or call to Representatives Michaud and Pingree to let them know that we care about this issue - given the dearth of early stage capital in Maine, SBIR and STTR are the best tools we have!