I got jobs, but nobody wants them.

[Cawnflakes]

So one issue I'm having is I've got a bunch of jobs that nobody is taking. My population is actually well educated. A small portion illiterate, most have revieved High School education, some have college, and a couple have post-grad.
There are a lot of open jobs on the island, but nobody wants to work them. From what I've looked at, most have an illiterate skill level requirement, and most of my population has an education. Everyone has gone to work in the fancy office buildings and not the farms or the mines that keep the island economy going.

I HAVE PEOPLE DYING BECAUSE NOBODY WANTS TO WORK ON A FARM.
I think that might be the problem. I have a demand for low-education jobs (that I have set to pay good money) and a population that thinks it's benieth them. I don't know.

What does the community think? Any advice that can pull me out of this situation?

[bean]

first things first, save your game... then try one or all of these scenarios with impunity.

-close all jobs that you don't need and set offices to college only... also pay very close attention to the productivity of your office buildings. Since they generate money based on population in the area it is super easy to build too many office buildings and end up losing money. Unless you are in a super populated area you shouldn't have more than 2 office buildings, check the productivity

-Lower the amount of slots available in certain jobs, if you aren't building there is no reason to have all the slots in every construction office open. Same thing for buildings that you've already passed historically, i.e. don't have 2 clinics and a hospital in an area where one hospital is enough or don't have a catholic mission, a church and a Cathedral in the same area.

-ENTERTAINMENT jobs: Not everyone wants to break their backs at the plantations or cutting wood, make sure that you also have entertainment jobs open to illiterate people

-Housing: Make sure that there is adequate housing FOR THAT INCOME LEVEL somewhere near the job you are trying to fill. Also make sure that the housing and environmental happiness is high. (use housing managers/build parks and decorations/use the waste treatment plants EVERYWHERE you see dark yellow/orange/red) Housing helps alot.

-Industry: dont go crazy trying to have every industry on one island, pick some that make money based on your island's resources and build that industry as far as possible, as soon as you pass an era re-evaluate what your industry should focus on so that; for example, you are not relying on Wood>Lumber>Planks>Furniture past the 3rd era. If you have an abundance of gold and WANT to make furniture past the 3rd era, import the base resources and move those workers elsewhere.

-Overbuilding: having a lot of money can be a curse, you start to expand faster than your population and ending up with empty industry. TOURISM is the answer, gets more money and requires VERY LITTLE personnel, plus it increases your standing with Tropicans as well. You can spend all that money you have piled up and put those 5 construction offices to work, all without overbuilding and spreading the population thin. (well... as thing as you would have if you built resource+industry buildings.

There is more advice but this is already getting tomelike so i will stop, hope it helps.

[bean]

btw i say that you should save so that you can pause the game and make all the changes you wanna make and then fast forward until you see if it is working or not, and if it doesn't you can just reload and try more/new approaches.

[nusensei]

It sounds like you have an economy that is too strongly based on HS education and above - too much industry, too many office bulidings, etc. If there is a pathway to a better job, your citizens will undertake training and occupy that job. Simply put, you need more population to fill up your current job vacancies.

[WhiskeyWerewolf]

Try doing missions related to China if you're in Modern Era. When successful, you can choose to receive 30 immigrants, and I believe most are Illiterate. And set your Constitution to Immigrants Nation, but I think that one's obvious.

[victaniac]

Be mindful of your employment. Every so often I let unemployment rise a bit so that I can have 0 jobs slots open. I do not like building and building and building while already having 20+ slots open. Wait until they fill and then continue building as you get more newcomers in the island.

Check what sort of jobs are open and keep in mind that college and high school jobs take a little time to fill as they educate themselves beforehand.

[Awesome Enterprises]

LOLOL "I HAVE PEOPLE DYING BECAUSE NOBODY WANTS TO WORK ON A FARM."

I had the same problem, I overbuilt my island then people stopped working the farms. I got those jobs filled by raising the budgets to the maximum, it took about 6 months (with two docks, and open immigration).