From here: Blue-collar wages are surging. Can it last? Excerpt: No doubt about it - the fix is "in". And Donald Dork can't take the credit. The US economy began to fix itself in 2014, well after the Replicants took control of the HoR and stymied all further stimulus-spending in 2010. (So, Barack was left to steer the economic ship with no tailwind.) Economies do that. Consumers get board with hoarding and saving, so human nature takes the lead. People go out and shop-till-they-drop. Can it last forever? Nope, but at least another couple of years. At the end of which, growth will once again stagnate and the unemployment rate will inch upward. Not all that much, but nonetheless somewhat. In such circumstances, the first workers to go are those most easily laid-off at the bottom rungs of the ladder. And those are NOT the ones running Artificial Intelligence machines doing the production work that humans were doing up till 2008. Which was when the New Era (called "Information Age") finally showed its best and its worst. The latter being massive layoffs that were prompted by the Great Recession. The former being that companies had a damn good reason (recession) to lay-off workers and install massively smart-machines to do the same jobs. Those running the highly complex production configuration from a computer screen are earning damn fine salaries. What does that mean for Joe/Jane Bloggs looking for a job? It means they'd better go get some new education-credentials rather waiting for the "old-jobs" to come back. Whyzzat? SERVICES INDUSTRIES The old jobs are gone for good. We are no longer a predominantly Manufacturing Country. We have become a Services Country. How's that? Read here: DEFINITION OF THE SERVICE INDUSTRY - excerpt: Some examples cited: Some agricultural services (including landscaping and horticulture) Hotels and other places of lodging Personal services (including dry cleaning, tax preparation, and hair cutting) Business services (including temporary agencies and business software developers) Automotive services Miscellaneous repairs Motion pictures Amusements and recreation Etc., etc., etc. One benefit of the change is that these jobs tend to be better paying (if one climbs the ladder) than in manufacturing. Time will tell if enough Yanks will go back to school and obtain the necessary credentials. Or will these jobs go to "furriners" from poorer-countries who nonetheless went to post-secondary schooling to obtain the necessary diplomas because it was free, gratis and for nothing ...
