How Did This Happen?

Joseph Dillon Davey

Chapter Chapter 3 in The Shrinking American Middle Class, 2012, pp 39-51 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract We have seen that there is a widespread feeling among the American middle class that something is seriously wrong with the job market. Earlier generations of Americans seemed to take for granted a feeling of security in their careers and, for the most part, that feeling does not exist for today’s labor force. Even college-educated workers who thought they had done “everything right” by getting an education and launching what they thought would be stable careers find themselves wrestling with unexpected challenges in paying college loans, child care, mortgages, health insurance, or even retirement. It seems like jobs are plentiful, as The Economist recently wrote, “for low and high-skilled workers, but employment opportunities for middle-skilled laborers have become much scarcer.”1 If you can design an iPad or work as a caretaker, you can find a job. There just is not enough in between.

Keywords: Gross Domestic Product; Hourly Wage; Medical Tourism; North American Free Trade Agreement; American Worker (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:palchp:978-1-137-29507-1_4

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DOI: 10.1057/9781137295071_4

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