As you will see in the article, polarization is a key word that is often brought up in this conversation. It states, “It was also suggested that there was an ongoing process of polarization in the labor market, with the share of job opportunities in middle-skill occupations continuing to decline while the shares of low and high skill occupations increased.” Would you say that most Americans probably do not know these underlying details behind the optimistic unemployment and job numbers? What would be a possible way to help increase jobs within the middle-class range?
Saturday, October 6, 2012
Looking Past the Numbers
There is no doubt that Americans should be excited about the unemployment rate recently falling below 8%, and also that over 100,000 jobs were added this past month. However, it is also to look past those general statistics and understand some issues that are still at hand. This article from the Wall Street Journal (link) talks about the declining middle-class and the fact that while the overall addition of jobs is a good thing, the quality of those jobs may not be as consistent as we'd like.
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I would argue that the best method to increase jobs within the middle class...would be by exercising the same method that first developed this class. Remembering back to the days of Henry Ford and the automotive industry in the early 20s--he is largely credited with the creation of the middle class in history. Employment in this class was tied into manufacturing and industry product/service development. Henry Ford aimed to give every worker their own home, and their own vehicle parked in front of it.
ReplyDeleteOutsourcing has simply demolished the middle class manufacturing and service industry in the US. The fact that other country's can do so much of these same tasks for astronomically reduced wages, has helped excel the polarization of the income gaps in America. White-collar work has increased, but the menial, hands-on work which was previously hallmarked by the middle-class has seen devastation in numbers. It will be interesting to see if there can be any future government fix for this. We've read the recent articles about the increasing polarity of the income gap, with it more extreme today than it was in 1960. But I haven't seen a single article in any format about potential solutions to regrowth in the middle class.