"We have job openings, but they are not the jobs that excite people and they don't pay as well," said Ron Hetrick, principal economist at the labor research firm Lightcast and a former senior official at the Bureau of Labor Statistics. "You can't stop trash collection. We need cops and firefighters and mechanics."

By Andrew Keshner and Jeffry Bartash

"We have job openings, but they are not the jobs that excite people and they don't pay as well," said Ron Hetrick, principal economist at the labor research firm Lightcast and a…