Free Republic

As technology changes, so does the job market. Two centuries ago, most low skilled workers would have found work as farmhands, while a century ago they would have been employed in a factory. Today they are most likely to work in the service industry, whether in retail, food service, janitorial services or as personal care aides in a nursing home or hospital. As I have written before, these jobs are often important stepping stones to better ones, even if they do not offer a direct path to advancement. Low skilled jobs still teach workers how to follow instructions and become...

A third of poorer Germans do not think hard work will get them anywhere, while over half of the younger poor said they would never be able to climb the social ladder, a new survey shows. An overwhelming majority of Germans on a low wage under the age of 30 said they believed it would be impossible to move up into the next wage bracket, according to the survey conducted by Allensbach pollsters for Bild der Frau women’s magazine. One third of those questioned—regardless of age or income—said individuals could not get anywhere by trying alone, and that a person’s...

<p>Think about all the new dads you've known. How much time did they take off from work when their kids arrived?</p> <p>Paternity leave is more accepted than it once was, but it's by no means a given.</p> <p>Some probably took a couple of days. Others may have taken off a week, even two. But how many new fathers take off even half the time from work as the mothers of their children do?</p>