Job Trends: Shifting

clipped from www.careerjournal.com

The David Wessel wrote an article for the Wall Street Journal about job market trends in the United States. Globalization is creating great demand for the most educated workers, those that can work with abstractions and high order concepts. These highly paid workers create a market for lower level workers that take care of their personal services. However, work in the middle is being eroded and outsourced to lower wage countries.

What does David Wessel suggest that we do about this concerning trend?

"That's a harder question.

Economists warn that shoring up the middle by shielding manufacturing industries from imports or otherwise meddling with the market would cost consumers heavily. Some, certainly not all, suggest letting the market be, and using the tax code to transfer money from the biggest winners. Others suggest "professionalizing" personal-service jobs, perhaps encouraging unionization, to boost wages. Unlike factory jobs, advocates reason, these jobs can't be moved offshore or automated if employers have to pay more.

The more popular solution -- at least among economists -- is a familiar one: Educate all workers so they are better at interpersonal or abstract skills (the jobs of the future) as opposed to dial-turning or keyboard-pounding (rapidly disappearing jobs of the past)."