Andrew Van Dam and Heather Long: How the U.S. economy turned six good jobs into bad ones: "Six industries that provided an above-average weekly paycheck in the 1990s but now pay less than an average wage.... These downgraded jobs have one thing in common: They don’t require a college degree...
...'Warehousing and distribution were once higher-skilled jobs with good pay, but the pay has gone down, even though the work still requires a tremendous amount of effort', said Diane Swonk, chief economist at professional services network Grant Thornton. 'People aren’t earning less because they are lazy'.... These six job categories... have... reduced union participation. Here’s a deeper look at the forces that brought them down.... Joel Waldfogel... said, “the number of new movies and sound recordings has skyrocketed in the past few years”... coming from independent labels and smaller studios. At the same time, employment in the music and motion-picture industries has expanded. The new jobs pay less than when gatekeepers ruled the Earth...
Of all repair workers, those who fix, install and maintain refrigerators, chain saws, televisions and assorted household goods have seen their wages fall fastest. The Internet is a likely culprit, but the disruption is very different from how technology transformed the music and warehouse industries.... A diverse and growing group of customers are taking repairs into their own hands, watching how-to videos and ordering parts online. And when they can’t fix it themselves, they’re more likely to simply buy one of today’s relatively cheap new appliances rather than call the repair shop....
The auto industry.... Companies such as Advance Auto Parts have struggled to keep up with the low prices and convenience of online retailers like Amazon.com.... Used-car prices are at a 13-year high, Edmunds.com says, and sales remain strong, but shoppers who used to go to a car lot are increasingly buying online or at an auction, hurting the commissions used-car dealers once enjoyed....
Food manufacturing is a different industry than it was 20 years ago. There’s a lot more meat involved. And because slaughterhouses tend to pay less than other food work, overall pay has fallen. Jobs in cheese factories and in fruit-and-vegetable canneries or packing plants still pay relatively well. But there are fewer of them. Lower-paying jobs in slaughterhouses, meatpacking plants and, to a lesser extent, bakeries have taken their place.... Slaughterhouse pay has fallen as major manufacturers have moved jobs from urban union strongholds to cheaper rural areas in less union-friendly states...
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