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The transformation of the American economy is accelerating, from an industrial economy to one dominated by creative and service occupations, according to this study from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Overall, the US economy added 3.8 million new jobs between 2000 and 2005. Beneath the surface are extraordinary shifts in the structure and nature of employment, as some sectors grow rapidly while others decline. From it comes a much clearer picture of the two-sided process of American economic growth: a powerful job generation machine, alongside rising levels of occupational or class-based inequality. Consider these five key trends.
Continued Manufacturing Decline: It is now a misnomer to call the US an industrial economy. Today, nearly twice as many Americans work in health-care and education as in manufacturing. Between 2000-2005 the US economy lost another 3.3 million manufacturing jobs due to combination of technological change and off-shoring.
Short-lived Construction Boom: More than 1 million
construction jobs were added during real estate's boom cycle, a level
that is clearly not sustainable in the current environment.
Fast Food Nation:
The US economy grew 2.3 million service economy jobs, the overwhelming
bulk of them in low-paying occupations like food service (793,000),
health-care support (625,000), and personal care (442,000). But the
economy lost an additional 1 million office and clerical jobs due
to technological upgrading and off-shoring over this period.
Creative Economy Question Marks: Creative occupations made
up more than half the growth in jobs, as the US economy added 4 million
professional, technical and business jobs. But the bulk of creative
sector job growth came in two sectors: education and health-care which
together accounted for more than 3 million jobs, three-quarters of the
total. At the same time, the economy lost 281,000 engineering and
architecture jobs.
All in all, the US economy generated just slightly more than 1 million new jobs in technical, professional and financial fields between 2000 and 2005. These trends are potentially troubling for several reasons. Education and health-care jobs, while important, are not substantial value-generators. Business Week's Michael Mandel has shown that the difference between regional growth and decline is the ability to generate jobs in fields other than education and health-care. My ongoing research with Charlotta Mellander shows that education and health-care jobs have little if any impact on regional incomes. And consider this. Those 1 million new high-end creative jobs amount to about 600 per year across each of America's 331 metro-regions, or about 66 per year for each of our 3000 or so counties. Although the report doesn't include geographic detail, those jobs are not being spread equally: There are winners and losers.
Gender Shift: But the report's biggest story by far is
gender. And from the findings, it's increasingly clear that the
intersection of gender and class now cuts in ways that might surprise
even the most astute observers. Women completely dominate the ranks of
high-wage job creation. "Women actually accounted for 1.7 million of
the 1.9 million net increase in total employment above the median
wage," the report finds, even though women are "dramatically
over-represented" in jobs that pay less than the median wage. Women
accounted for "all" of net employment growth in the highest earning
jobs (the top quartile) in management, business and finance, and "most"
of the net increase in professional and technical jobs. In my own
work, I've observed growing anxiety on the part of middle-aged
professional men (the group most
likely to squelch change in the companies and communities my team works with).
This provides yet another reason why.
The full report is here (hat-tip: Boz).
www,mkpress.com/flat
Posted by: scottie | February 21, 2007 at 11:46 PM
www.mkpress.com/flat
Posted by: scottie | February 21, 2007 at 11:48 PM
Hi Richard,
I came across your name through the German authors Sascha Lobo/ Holm Friebe who cite your and Charlotta Mellander's research in their work. These are fascinating and encouraging data.
Since I adapt and translate Pokémon and Di-Gata Defender screenplays from English to German I certainly feel that I am contributing to the wealth of the region I live in.
Greetings
HEIDI 2.0
Posted by: HEIDI | March 10, 2007 at 11:50 AM