Polarization (economics)

Economists refer to the polarization of the labor force when middle-class jobs—requiring a moderate level of skills, like autoworkers’ jobs—seem to disappear relative to those at the bottom, requiring few skills, and those at the top, requiring greater skill levels.[1] The structure of job opportunities in the United States has sharply polarized over the past two decades, with expanding job opportunities in both high-skill, high-wage occupations and low-skill, low wage occupations combined with contracting opportunities in middle-wage, middle-skill white-collar and blue-collar jobs.[2] Although this has contributed to the rise of income inequality in the U.S. it is a minor factor compared to the relatively rapid rise in income and wealth by the top 1%.[3] Employment and economic polarization is widespread across industrialized economies; it is not a uniquely American phenomenon. Over the past decades, wage gains were also polarized, with modest gains at the extremes and smaller gains in the middle.[4] A good description of polarization in Great Britain is one of the first uses of the term, economic polarization.[5][6]

  1. ^ Stiglitz, Joseph E. (2012-06-04). The Price of Inequality: How Today's Divided Society Endangers Our Future (p. 9). Norton. Kindle Edition.
  2. ^ Autor, David (April 2010). "The Polarization of Job Opportunities in the U.S. Labor Market Implications for Employment and Earnings". MIT Department of Economics and National Bureau of Economic Research.
  3. ^ Stiglitz, Joseph E. (2012-06-04). The Price of Inequality: How Today's Divided Society Endangers Our Future (p. 9). Norton. Kindle Edition.
  4. ^ Dorn, David (December 2015). "The Rise of the Machines - How Computers Have Changed Work" (PDF). UBS Center Public Paper. #4.
  5. ^ Goos, Maarten; Manning, Alan (2007). "Lousy and Lovely Jobs: The Rising Polarization of Work in Britain". Review of Economics and Statistics. 89 (1): 118–133. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.596.8382. doi:10.1162/rest.89.1.118. S2CID 27727245.
  6. ^ Autor, David H.; Katz, Lawrence F.; Kearney, Melissa S. (2006). "The Polarization of the Labor Market". American Economic Review. 96 (2): 189–194. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.74.5638. doi:10.1257/000282806777212620. JSTOR 30034640. S2CID 154818403.