Abstract:

Job polarisation has had strong effects on US workers’ relative wages, according to research by Michael Boehm. His study examines whether the decline in manufacturing and clerical jobs has been responsible for the lagging wages of middle-skill workers in the United States. Comparing the occupational choices and earnings of survey respondents in the 1980s and today, he shows that labour market returns to middle-skill jobs have declined relative to high- and low-skill jobs.

This article summarises ‘Has Job Polarization Squeezed the Middle Class? Evidence from the Allocation of Talents’ by Michael Boehm, CEP Discussion Paper No. 1215.