Many very interesting answers, by Acemoglu, Sumner, and Thoma, among others.

Of course, my answer is: yes. But for a different reason. It's not that Americans don't have the right level of "skills". It doesn't take a double PhD to make awesome stuff - rather, it takes passion, imagination, and dedication. I'd point, instead of skills gaps, to severe, systemic capital misallocation. We've overinvested in yesterday's industries to the point that they're now the walking dead - but the cost, of course, has been failing to seed tomorrow's.

We don't have awesome jobs because we've propped up zombie companies that create, largely, McJobs - when they create any at all. Conversely, the incentives for entrepreneurship are drying up, thanks to a broken ventureconomy.

So how do we fix the problem? By creating the institutions of the 21st century. Etc - you know the score (if you don't, check recent posts).