US workers need better skills and more power

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Harry J. Holzer, opinion contributor

We all know that U.S. workers have suffered stagnant earnings and great inequality for several decades.

Since 1979, median U.S. worker wages have risen only 10-20 percent (depending on how we measure inflation), while profits have grown dramatically. Inequality between workers has also risen, especially between high school and college-educated workers. Pay for corporate execs or financial managers has skyrocketed, and the pandemic has only widened these gulfs.

When trying to explain these outcomes, economists are of two minds. One group stresses competitive market forces - like technical change and globalization - and the fact that college-educated workers are more likely to work with new technology or imports rather than be replaced by them.

Indeed, both technology and international trade are responsible for the disappearance of millions of good-paying jobs, in manufacturing and other sectors, for those with high school or less education. And, as "artificial intelligence" performs a widening range of tasks traditionally done by workers, they will need "lifelong learning" to gain new skills and perform new tasks that the machines still can't do.

-more-

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/us-workers-need-better-skills-and-more-power/ar-AAO9mEr

[Girard442]

1. Workers are paid low wages because workers are paid low wages.

There always seems to be enough money in the kitty to give the boss another million dollar raise.

[MichMan]

2. People that develop the skills and knowledge to design, program, and maintain automation...

....will be very sought after and earn high wages

[halfulglas]

3. Another problem is Degree Creep.

I'm in my 70's. The generation of my father and my friend's fathers could get a really good job right out of high school that could support a family very well. You could get an office job and rise into management ranks. (Of course it was mostly the men, not the women.)

Now so many employers require a degree for jobs that don't really need a degree. They need to acquire the knowledge that the job requires but not a degree in it and although many employers privately agree a degree isn't need are reluctant to even look at an application that doesn't have the degree or even a different degree than they are asking for - like a liberal arts major wanting to apply for a job posted for an engineer, but doesn't really really need an engineer. Back in the late 60s my ex got a job for which they originally only hired engineers but the company that hired him couldn't hire graduate engineers for the starting salary they were offering.

Today with resumes being electronically processed it's hard to get an interview for a job you can probably thrive in unless the company is flexible. And the fact is that once on the job you know things are changing and keep learning more to keep up with the changing job or even future job market.

Unfortunately some schools still have an academic track and the "other" (different school systems have different terms) track. They put so much of the money in the track that puts emphasis on preparing the kids for college but the other track just teaches job skills which don't include other than basic just enough to graduate math and English. So often they have to pay high prices for private "technical colleges" and go into debt before they can even join the job market. And with school counselors being in short supply, so many of them direct their efforts to what colleges their academic students are applying to, they often neglect working with the kids on the "other" track to direct them to some of the free or nearly free courses at the community colleges that will prepare them for working in today's competitive technical world.