The The WonkBlog on The Washington Post
Changes in the labor market have upended myriad jobs that used to pay well, dragging down wages and leaving millions of American workers feeling misled and frustrated.
To illustrate this dynamic, we isolated six industries that provided an above-average weekly paycheck in the 1990s but now pay less than an average wage. As policymakers try to understand why wages aren’t growing faster despite nearly record-low unemployment, this is one part of the story.
These downgraded jobs have one thing in common: They don’t require a college degree. The share of workers with only a high school education is rising in all six jobs and now constitutes the largest portion in all but one of them, according to labor analytics firm Burning Glass Technologies.
The careers used to provide less educated workers an avenue to the middle class, but not anymore. And the well-paying jobs of today are often in fields such as health care and finance, which require additional education and training.
