Technology and the Middle-Skill (middle-class) Employee: Yikes!

Thanks to a reader for the heads up.
From Real Time Economics:
Middle-Skill Jobs Are Lagging

The notion that technology is an enemy to many types of middle-class jobs isn’t novel.

Many economists and policymakers recognize computers and related technologies render redundant jobs that can be automated. Lower-skilled workers, while not well paid, are protected because their jobs often need some form of personal contact. Highly skilled workers perform tasks computers can’t and possess the education to take advantage of and exploit technological advances.

So the worker in the middle, the office workers and factory laborers, are the ones that take the hit from the rise of the machines.

A report released Monday by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York puts some numbers behind the evolution of the work force. The report found that from 1980 until 2010, job growth happened “disproportionately” at the high and low ends of skill levels.

The middle-skilled jobs lost in recessions haven’t been recovered in rebounds. Meanwhile, low- and high-skill jobs don’t lose any notable ground during downturns and grow in better times. That means the pain of recessions is felt almost exclusively in the middle of the skills curve, the report noted....MORE