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Middle class downsizes as good jobs vanish
The Miami Herald ^ | November 11, 2010 | Kevin G. Hall

Posted on 11/11/2010 9:33:02 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet

The well-paying, predominantly white-collar jobs that once sustained many American communities are disappearing at an alarming rate, keeping the unemployment rate stubbornly high despite the end of the Great Recession.

More troubling, these jobs in accounting, financial analysis, commercial printing and a broad array of other mostly white-collar occupations are unlikely to come back, experts predict.

Although unemployment is high in South Florida -- 12.8 percent -- the trend isn't as pronounced here partly because there weren't as many professional jobs to begin with.

There isn't a single cause to the national trend. Some of it is explained by changing technology, some of it is the result of automation. Sending well-paying jobs to low-cost centers abroad is another big part of the story. So is global competition from emerging economies such as China and India.

The result is the same in all cases, however. Jobs that paid well, required skills and produced vital communities are going away and aren't being replaced by anything comparable.

``Unfortunately, the evidence is that you see a form of downward mobility of workers who are displaced from middle-skilled, stable career occupations,'' said David Autor, an economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in an interview.

Autor published a much-discussed paper in April, suggesting that the U.S. labor market has become polarized, with employment growth in the high-skill, high-wage end, and the low-skill, low-wage end. The vast middle, he concluded, is shrinking.

``The Great Recession has quantitatively but not qualitatively changed the direction of the U.S. labor market,'' Autor concluded, pointing to an accelerating trend that he said has been under way for more than a decade.

As it stands, 14.8 million Americans were unemployed in September, 6.1 million of them for six months or longer....

(Excerpt) Read more at miamiherald.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Extended News; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: economy; jobs; obama; recession; unemployment
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Meanwhile, China, India, Indonesia and other countries thrive.
1 posted on 11/11/2010 9:33:08 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
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To: AuntB; Liz; Willie Green; okie01

The Benefits of Free Trade ping


2 posted on 11/11/2010 9:35:45 PM PST by Clintonfatigued (Illegal aliens commit crimes that Americans won't commit.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

First off the Great Recession hasn’t ended and secondly we do know the cause of the job losses.


3 posted on 11/11/2010 9:41:06 PM PST by Patrick1 (I'm a soldier of good fortune, I'm guarding the Yucatan.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Hasn’t this been the intent since Jan 20, 2010?


4 posted on 11/11/2010 9:51:27 PM PST by J Edgar
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To: Patrick1

Nothing will improve until he is gone. 2013 or unless the Dems impeach him.


5 posted on 11/11/2010 9:51:29 PM PST by Frantzie (Imam Ob*m* & Democrats support the VICTORY MOSQUE & TV supports Imam)
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To: Patrick1
First off the Great Recession hasn’t ended and secondly we do know the cause of the job losses.

I expect supply and demand might have something to do with it? For many years employers have made every effort to increase the supply of labor at all levels by lobbying for more legal immigrant labor, and by luring illegal immigrant labor, and by outsourcing to cheap labor every sort of job that can be outsourced, and exporting manufacturing jobs.

We do know what's been causing job losses, and stagnant job growth in many types of work, for years we've known. There are still many with an economic and/or political reason for not acknowledging the reason for the losses, and for the shrinking middle class.

The article mentions the main causes.

This would be a good one to post during the day when more would see it.

6 posted on 11/11/2010 9:55:08 PM PST by Will88
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

my father spoke frequently when I was a child about the destruction of the middle class. I think in many ways he was ahead of his time.


7 posted on 11/11/2010 10:00:39 PM PST by television is just wrong
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

GLOBALISM G-O-B-A-L-I-S-M

Sponsored by both the Rats and the GOP, it has exported American jobs overseas to the point where we make nearly NOTHING we consume here anymore.

The ONLY people to benefit are Wall Street and the Commodity dealers. Everyone is being degraded to third world status in what was once the most affluent nation on earth.


8 posted on 11/11/2010 10:03:48 PM PST by ZULU (No nation which tried to tolerate Islam escaped Islamization.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
The result is the same in all cases, however. Jobs that paid well, required skills and produced vital communities are going away and aren't being replaced by anything comparable.

But as the major trade deals were made, the American people were assured (for 20 or more years) that they would be retrained for the "high tech, high paying" jobs of the future. Well, the future is here, so where are the high tech, high paying jobs for all the retrained workers?

Those who've pushed these policies for years are running out of lies. Now about all they have is: "It's a global economy."

Unless there is quick and substantial improvement, these policies will become the hot political issues of the near future.

9 posted on 11/11/2010 10:05:42 PM PST by Will88
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I’m seriously thinking about giving up myself. darn ran out of rope and in freefall for the past 2 and a half years Struggling to make these house payments in a socialist economy is no fun at sll, two part time jobs aint even enough,


10 posted on 11/11/2010 10:16:29 PM PST by KTM rider ( Liberty is hijacked by the wealthy elite, US political system is their mercenary force)
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To: KTM rider

Galt’s Gulch?
http://www.LivingInThePhilippines.com


11 posted on 11/11/2010 10:18:20 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet (Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under. ~Mencken)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
The well-paying, predominantly white-collar jobs that once sustained many American communities are disappearing at an alarming rate, keeping the unemployment rate stubbornly high despite the end of the Great Recession.

I wonder how many saw the irony in the term, "Service Economy" twenty years ago? Anybody who didn't see the Internet and supply chain automation cutting out those positions wasn't awake.

12 posted on 11/11/2010 10:26:33 PM PST by Carry_Okie (Grovelnator Schwarzenkaiser, fashionable fascism one charade at a time.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Why would someone want to be a software engineer anyway? Just have a few kids, work at Wal-Mart or a restaurant, and get on ‘Food Stamps’..... The new American Dream.

(thanks globalists)


13 posted on 11/11/2010 10:37:43 PM PST by KoRn (Department of Homeland Security, Certified - "Right Wing Extremist")
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
"Meanwhile, China, India, Indonesia and other countries thrive."

In many ways they are more capitalist than we are.

14 posted on 11/11/2010 10:37:43 PM PST by TopQuark
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

“More troubling, these jobs in accounting, financial analysis, commercial printing and a broad array of other mostly white-collar occupations are unlikely to come back, experts predict. “

Yes, they will be hard to get back with Obama’s current policy of Wall Street bashing.


15 posted on 11/11/2010 10:38:35 PM PST by ari-freedom (Islam is at war against America, while America is at the mall.)
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To: Patrick1
"First off the Great Recession hasn’t ended "

What is your evidence, please?

16 posted on 11/11/2010 10:38:36 PM PST by TopQuark
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To: Will88

This has nothing to do with manufacturing. MBA’s aren’t going to suddenly decide to make toys and gizmos.


17 posted on 11/11/2010 10:40:48 PM PST by ari-freedom (Islam is at war against America, while America is at the mall.)
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To: Will88
"For many years employers have made every effort to increase the supply of labor at all levels by lobbying for more legal immigrant labor, and by luring illegal immigrant labor, and by outsourcing to cheap labor every sort of job that can be outsourced, and exporting manufacturing jobs."

And why were they doing (some of) the things you allege? Is it not because the labor you mentioned has failed to stay competitive?

18 posted on 11/11/2010 10:40:56 PM PST by TopQuark
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To: Will88
"Well, the future is here, so where are the high tech, high paying jobs for all the retrained workers?"

The jobs either went to India, or they imported the Indians HERE to do them. We've been sold out. The politicians either need to fix what they have wrecked, or we might just have to 'burn down the store'....

19 posted on 11/11/2010 10:40:56 PM PST by KoRn (Department of Homeland Security, Certified - "Right Wing Extremist")
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
“Meanwhile, China, India, Indonesia and other countries thrive.”

I went out to buy BR40 120 watt bulbs today. GE used to make them here in the US. I was told the Obama administration has banned them. My only choice was to buy CFLs made in China. I can't use them because my house is wired with electronic dimmers. It's getting rather dark in here.

FUBO
FUBO
FUBO

20 posted on 11/11/2010 10:41:30 PM PST by Gabrial (The Whitehouse Nightmare will continue as long as the Nightmare is in the Whitehouse)
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