Good paying jobs are disappearing. Unemployment is down, but a lot of the new jobs are from the service industry. Low paying jobs like busers and waitresses.
Can this problem be fixed or is it just a sign of the times? The rapid growth of computers and automation are drying up the job markets.
This isn't the first time in the past year or two that I've read this conjecture about the jobs that are available. I have to say, from personal experience and what I'm seeing in the market, there are actually plenty of good jobs out there, businesses are expanding payrolls, cost of employment is ticking up and frankly, I've watched semi under-qualified individuals hop into jobs that are well above their pay grade.
From a relative standpoint, we're in a better place right now than we've been in over a decade since 10 years ago the American consumer and businesses were over-leveraged.
I think the issue is more about bifurcation in the job market. For people with a brain, skills and some credentials on their resume, they can move around various industries right now with a bit of ease. For young people who're entering the job market, the expectation is that they should just glide into a job paying 50k - it's just not the case for the most part. So the debts of undergrad or grad are crushing in relation to starting salaries.
Every time anyone celebrates the economy under Clinton, there's always some angry people that claim the jobs were all at McDonalds, this is also a fallacy. So I think part of what's going on is pure partisanship and revisionist history.
All that being said, there's definitely parts of the country that are wounded and not getting better. The vicious reality is that labor in the US is expensive by comparison to the rest of the world. So this concept that unskilled, simple industry should thrive in any way is really naive or just ignorant.
Education and skill building is essential. There will always be a need for occupations like sheet metal workers or carpenters...etc. Thankfully, that's the case and those industries will be sustainable.... but the days of making good union pay with pension while working on a factory floor are long gone and where they currently exist is not for long.
We have to put things in historical context. Post WWII there was a global rebuilding and the US led the way. There were incredible riches to be reaped and along the way the US and the rest of the world binged on credit... massive debt expansion. What we're seeing today is the inevitable process of globalization, free trade, waning of this golden era of income expansion in the US and an unwinding of debts in the developed world. Those who are living in wealthy nations that aren't totally bloated welfare states without advanced skills are up shits creak and the only solution is to bring them along from a training and education standpoint. Luckily, the US is still one of the freest, most open places in the world and it fosters small businesses and innovation better than anyone, save some debatable exceptions here and there. There's definitely room to roll more people into the work for but for the people who're considerably older and have been out of work since 2008 - it's an almost unsolvable problem. They need to just accept things and buckle down into whatever kind of work they can get.
One last thing is certain in the modern age - living in or around a bustling, competitive and vibrant city will be a vastly different experience than living in rural areas. Use your brains and get somewhere where money exists - don't expect it to just show up in the middle of nowhere in Ohio (just an example).
