Europe’s labour market is set to become even more polarised, largely due to the growth of jobs at the very bottom of the wage distribution. However, across the EU28, there is considerable heterogeneity in the patterns of structural change by job-wage quintile, with many Member States projected to upgrade their occupational structure towards higher paying … Continue reading
The earnings gap between people with a college degree and those with no education beyond high school has been growing since the late 1970s. Since 2000, however, the gap has grown more for those who have earned a post-graduate degree as well. The divergence between workers with college degrees and those with graduate degrees may … Continue reading
The labor market is extremely complex and it’s constantly evolving. There are two big themes we’ve seen in recent decades: 1) companies have increasingly outsourced tasks overseas and 2) companies have increasingly automated functions. These themes have been devastating for those at the middle-skill level. Wells Fargo Securities’ Eugenio Aleman and Anika Khan recently published … Continue reading
Cumulatively, these two trends of rapid employment growth in both high and low-‐‑education jobs have substantially reduced the share of employment accounted for by ‘middle skill’ jobs. In 1979, the four middle skill occupations (sales, office and administrative workers, production workers, and operatives) accounted for 60 percent of employment. In 2007, this number was 49 … Continue reading
The purchasing power of the typical American family is 3.1 percent lower now than it was five years ago. No wonder people are unhappy about the economy! The benefits of rising levels of economic activity have simply not accrued to middle-income wage earners. Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor. Read the whole story at Why the Middle … Continue reading
The number of people performing low-skill, low-pay, manual labor tasks has grown along with the number undertaking high-skill, high-pay, nonroutine, principally problem-solving jobs. Employment in the United States is becoming increasingly polar- ized, growing ever more con- centrated in the highest- and lowest-paying occupations and creating growing income inequality. The causes and consequences of this … Continue reading
Employment in traditional middle-class jobs has fallen sharply over the last few decades. At the same time, middle-class wages have been stagnant. This column reviews recent research on job polarisation and presents a new study that explicitly links job polarisation with the changes in workers’ wages. Job polarisation has a substantial negative effect on middle-skill … Continue reading
the decline in the share of workers in middle-skill jobs is due both to a decline in inflows into these jobs and because of a rise in outflows from these jobs research finds Continue reading