Actually themars, you're right. There are tons of engineers, geoscientists, etc. that are unemployed. My original point was that skilled trades are getting paid well because they're still in demand. We went from a shortage to nearer to balance due to the economic slowdown. Unskilled labour does ok because lots of unskilled people would rather be unemployed than do many jobs, so pay remains higher than expected for burger flipping. I shouldn't have said that the unemployed are "mostly" liberal arts types or lazy unskilled workers. That's not fully true (though unemployment is higher in that cohort).

You're 100% right though on the skilled professionals and I regret what I said. I retract my statement.