Why Intractable Unemployment?
Explanations of “we couldn’t see this coming” or “it was just bad luck” mask several reasons for our current state of unemployment: • Technology is a “game changer.” Technology will replace many lower skilled administrative and manufacturing jobs (postal workers, telephone operators, computer operators, etc). See e.g. 23 Occupations That Will Never Recover from the Great Recession • Outsourcing – Closely allied to technology is the outsourcing of jobs to other countries. With high speed telecommunications, sophisticated software, larger faster ships and lax foreign labor and environmental standards, American companies will continue to outsource jobs. • Financial Excess- The combination of financial engineering of mortgage back securities, subprime loans and a zero interest rate policy misallocated capital to the housing sector. With the inevitable housing bust, we destroyed construction jobs and supporting professions such as law, mortgage banking, appraisal, insurance brokers and real
