{"id":648,"date":"2014-01-25T00:55:00","date_gmt":"2014-01-25T00:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/01\/the-jobs-problem-some-rambling-friday-night-thoughts.html"},"modified":"2014-01-25T00:55:00","modified_gmt":"2014-01-25T00:55:00","slug":"the-jobs-problem-some-rambling-friday-night-thoughts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/01\/the-jobs-problem-some-rambling-friday-night-thoughts.html","title":{"rendered":"The jobs problem (some rambling Friday-night thoughts)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

So, as many of you know, I consistently follow relatively few blogs, but one of those is Megan McArdle at Bloomberg View<\/a>, and I and attempt to follow the \u201chow to get blog readers\u201d instruction of writing up some witty comment with a link to a lengthier treatment in your own blog post, more often there than on any other blog. (And, from the blogspot traffic sources report, her readers are more willing to follow such a link than on other blogs.) Now, part of that is because the outdated internet browser on my work computer* doesn\u2019t load comments on National Review Online, but she also does toss out topics for discussion with reliable frequency \u2014 though it would help if she would talk about pensions more often, of course. <\/p>\n

(* Mind you, I\u2019m not spending my whole workday blogging or reading blogs, but it\u2019s in the nature of my part-time schedule that I have the flexibility to, say, take a long lunch break, honest!) <\/p>\n

Anyway, today\u2019s post was on a Slate article <\/a>proposing that the government guarantee jobs for all. The Slate article itself is rather flaky and poorly thought out, especially for someone who claims to be a Ph.D. candidate in sociology. But it links back up to a continuing concern of hers; as she says, \u201cAs longtime readers know, I think the decline in opportunity for college graduates is a big problem.\u201d <\/p>\n

There was also a post on marginalrevolution.com on a recent study on income mobility<\/a>, which, I confess, I\u2019ve only partially read. <\/p>\n

And I went back to the family stories I wrote about earlier this week<\/a>. Sure, there are other interesting family history stories, and a lot of research we haven\u2019t done yet, but what intrigues me are the life stories: Amelia, at the turn of the century, twice widowed with four children, taking in laundry to support her family, with the eldest daughter leaving school to work alongside her, and, one presumes, the children pitching in after school; and then Leo, in the 40s and 50s, supporting his salary on, first, a barber\u2019s, and then an insurance salesman\u2019s salary. Mind you, the family wasn\u2019t particulary wealthy \u2014 they were able to buy their home in the suburbs in the 50s due to a modest inheritance, and my mom at Thanksgiving shared her memories of the house, small and old and her father\u2019s choice because of the 10 acres it included (which I attibute to the immigrant in him). My mother attended nursing school because the students earned their way through by working at the hospital, and later helped her younger sister with college money. <\/p>\n

My dad, on the other hand, had the classic \u201cwork his way through school\u201d story in the late 50s\/early 60s\u2013 well, not quite; I know there was some money coming from his family, but he worked at the Pizza King, and in the kitchen at his fraternity house, and was in ROTC (though not with a scholarship) as well, while studying engineering. <\/p>\n

Now there\u2019s increasingly a mood that the \u201cAmerican dream\u201d is fading. Partly that\u2019s coming from college graduates who can\u2019t find the jobs they\u2019re expecting, but I\u2019m not sure how much there\u2019s a significant decline in job opportunities and how much of this is changed expectations \u2014 the gender studies majors who are stuck waiting tables \u2014 or an increase in college students without a corresponding increase in high-skilled jobs. I\u2019m the first to admit that I haven\u2019t really gathered statistics on this, though. <\/p>\n

But there are a couple key problems contained in the \u201ccollege kids can\u2019t get jobs\u201d mantra. Tuition has escalated unsustainably; the University of Illinois reached the $100,000 marker (for an in-state student, including room and board) according to reports in today\u2019s paper. And there are too many jobs for which a college degree isn\u2019t really<\/i> necessary but demanded by employers anyway. Consider my mother \u2014 her R.N. was earned at Deaconness Hospital in St. Louis; this is now a for-profit college offering four-year and master\u2019s degrees in nursing (it was acquired by DeVry, according to Wikipedia), with tuition and fees of $19,000 per year. <\/p>\n

Or consider my father. Not that he didn\u2019t attend college; he studied mechanical engineering at Purdue. But a different part of his story \u2014 when he was still in high school, he had one job after the next, helping build homes, repair cars, and worked on the family (hobby-sized) farm and developing other skills that meant that when he was assigned to a supervisory position in a vehicle repair unit in Germany during his tour of duty there, he was ready, at the age of 23, to supervise a group of 20 civilians and enlisted men, and had the car repair skills to supervise not only the workers but also the quality of the work. Does a college graduate in 2014 have this sort of life experience? And, without a collge degree, can a young person build themselves into employability? <\/p>\n

But the problem stretches beyond just young people. It\u2019s bigger. The rewards are becoming increasingly outsized for the highly-skilled, with the right skills, and wages are stagnating for the working class, due to the twin competitions of low-cost workers overseas and (illegal) immigrants in the US willing to accept low wages. Or offshoring and H1-B visas impacting the middle-class. The \u201cinvisible hand\u201d may do many things, but it can\u2019t remedy this, at least not in the short-term, and not without significant dislocations for people. Heck, I read once, some time ago, speculations that the stagnation in wages since the 70s could be connected to the entry of women in the workforce \u2014 that the growth in the labor force reduced wages in a supply-and-demand fashion. <\/p>\n

Now, to some degree, the jobs that everyone remembers from a golden age of supporting your family with a high school diploma were generally arduous, and the number of physically arduous jobs, that pay well because of the physical difficultly of the jobs, have dropped substantially. They also generally required far more than 40 hours per week, or at least offered the prospect of pay-boosting overtime. I doubt my grandfather punched in at 8 and out at 5. And the Greeks? They\u2019re known for small businesses (Greek immigrants, that is; not Greeks in Greece, who are known for preferring cushy government jobs), and my Greek side of the family was no exception \u2014 and small businesses mean a lot of hours. <\/p>\n

So is that the answer? Do people need to be more entrepreneurial? Both in terms of literally starting businesses, and developing practical real-world skills with an entrepreneur\u2019s mindset? <\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know. I haven\u2019t seen a solution, in anything that I\u2019ve read from the right-of-center or left-of-center worlds. Watch this space? That\u2019s something I\u2019m watching for, or perhaps some hints of a way forward that I can assemble into something more.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So, as many of you know, I consistently follow relatively few blogs, but one of those is Megan McArdle at Bloomberg View, and I and attempt to follow the \u201chow to get blog readers\u201d instruction of writing up some witty comment with a link to a lengthier treatment in your own blog post, more often […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-648","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nThe jobs problem (some rambling Friday-night thoughts)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"So, as many of you know, I consistently follow relatively few blogs, but one of those is Megan McArdle at Bloomberg View, and I and attempt to follow the\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, 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