Labor Force Polarized as Middle-Skill Jobs Disappear: Report

[Newsjock]

Source: MarketWatch

Middle-skills jobs have lost share in the employment pool in the last three decades, a trend of labor-market "polarization" reinforced by the recession, according to a report released Friday.

"Employment losses during the recent recession were far more severe in middle-skill white- and blue-collar jobs than in either high-skill, white-collar jobs or in low-skill service occupations," according to the report by economist David Autor of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that was presented at a Washington conference about the future of American Jobs.

The four middle-skill occupations -- sales, office and administrative workers, production workers and operators -- accounted for 57.3% employment in 1979. That portion fell to 48.6% in 2007, and declined to 45.7% in 2009, according to the report.

Male workers have been particularly hard hit, as their educational attainment has slowed and labor force participation declined, according to Autor.

"Perhaps most alarmingly, males as a group have adapted comparatively poorly to the changing labor market," Autor wrote. "For males without a four-year college degree, wages have stagnated or fallen over three decades. And as these males have moved out of middle-skill blue-collar jobs, they have generally moved downward in the occupational skill and earnings distribution."

Read more: http://finance.yahoo.com/career-work/article/109424/labor-force-polarized-as-middle-skill-jobs-disappear-report?mod=career-worklife_balance&sec=topStories&pos=5&asset=&ccode=

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

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[SkyDaddy7]

2. The Reagan Era lives on!

Of course this will be spun as Obama's fault by the right. ...Anyway, this is a very sad time in America!

The really sad part is in November the left will stay home and the right will vote in numbers similar to a Presidential Election thus returning the government back over to the idiots that played the biggest role in causing this assault on the middle class.

[Supersedeas]

6. the greed US corporations to outsource US jobs and then cry USA when its time to defend the Country

with the blood of those who would protect their right to be greedy and unpatriotic

[daleo]

3. So computer programming, and systems analysis are now middle skill?

Because tons of those positions have been offshored. I guess anything that is outsourced is "middle skilled" by definition. How exactly are people supposed to "adapt" to this?

[peacebird]

5. only trades, service sector, and management jobs are "safe"

My job is being outsourced - BS college degree plus over 30 years experience. SW test is easily outsourced, as is coding. Costs the company less for workers in Bulgaria and India.

My approach is become as self sufficient as I can and Buy Local as much as possible. If there is a product I need which I can get from a small local then that is where I get it. I choose local over Big Box every time.
Building community relationships.

[amandabeech]

7. And of course, neither India or Bulgaria will let you move with your job. n/t

[KT2000]

4. Private equity firms

and holding companies. They are gutting this country of jobs - sending them overseas and turning the companies they buy into financial instruments.