Here in DC’s Chinatown (which, for those of you who haven’t visited, doesn’t really contain much in the way of Chinese people or Chinese stuff) the Corner Bakery seems to be regularly employing people to cruise around on segways promoting the existence of the store.
Draw from this what conclusions you will, but one point I would make is that it illustrates that lack of adequate skills in the labor force can rarely explain unemployment as such. There’s always something you could hire people to do, if you think demand is adequate. The problem with not having in-demand labor market skills is that the jobs you get offered might suck. If there are no jobs at all, you’re looking at a different kind of problem.
