On How The US Job Market Is Shifting

By Edward Harrison On Jun 26, 2011

Lakshman Achuthan of the Economic Cycle Research Institute (ECRI) explains his view to Anthony Mason of CBS that the problem in the US jobs market is not jut cyclical in nature.

Edward Harrison 7783 posts 575 comments

Edward Harrison is a senior Editor at Bloomberg. He is also the founder of Credit Writedowns newsletter, a former career diplomat, investment banker and technology executive with over twenty five years of business experience. He speaks six languages and reads another five, skills he uses to provide a more global perspective. Edward holds an MBA in Finance from Columbia University and a BA in Economics from Dartmouth College.

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4 Comments

fresno dan says 13 years ago

Perhaps.
My own theory is that construction and reality jobs, which employeed a lot of non-college graduates and were relativly high paying, are gone (not forever, but a good long time), and that there is not a good substitute for them. Fewer jobs at lower wages makes for a wrenching recovery.
hutrade says 13 years ago

yeah tech changes are a part of it sure. But the economy is not exactly “growing” or “larger”…look at how much of or GDP is made up of the financials. Those numbers, in my view, reveal a very skewed economy towards speculation and really distorts the reality of both job prospects as well as worker skills today. Just my 2 cents through.
1. Edward Harrison says 13 years ago
  
  hutrade, I agree with you there. Nevertheless, the debate about ‘structural’ versus ‘cyclical’ unemployment will continue. There are obviously markers of both at play. But to argue all of the lost jobs have cyclical determinants is to argue that US resource allocation before the recession was optimal. It clearly was very, very skewed.
2. David Lazarus says 13 years ago
  
  I would also add that government policy is significantly skewed to prefer big business over small business. Small businesses are the real job creators, and they are struggling with access to funding of business investment. Banks have tightened their lending criteria so much that they are choking job creation.

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