Article • Dean Baker’s Beat the Press
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The Washington Post had an article reporting on the more rapid job growth in higher paying sectors of the economy in the last six years. At one point the piece tells readers:
“Even before the recession began, the economy was experiencing what academics call job polarization: growth at the high and low ends of the pay scale, but not much movement in the middle. Two major factors drove this shift: new technologies that replaced some skilled workers and increased competition from the international labor market.”
Actually this is not true. Since 2000 both high and middle wage occupations were declining as a share of total employment. Only low-paying occupations saw an increase in their share of total employment.