Watch out for that "assembly line" label.
Dan Gillespie never thought he'd have to look so hard for work.
When the Seattle-area resident left the Air Force in 1980, he earned a computer science degree and enjoyed 20 years of steady work. He saved enough money to buy his wife's childhood home last year.
Three months later, he was laid off.
Gillespie, 53, hasn't found a job since. Even the corner store won't hire him. He and his wife sold the house last month.
"The computer jobs are gone," he said. "So what's next? We can't all move into gene splicing."
Long-term unemployment, defined as joblessness for six months or more, is at record rates. But there's an additional twist: An unusually large share of those chronically out of work are, like Gillespie, college graduates.
The increasing inability of educated workers to quickly return to the workforce reflects dramatic shifts in the economy, experts say. Even as overall hiring is picking up and economic growth remains strong, industries are transforming at a rapid pace as they adjust to intense competition, technological change and other pressures.
Oh wait for it now "Mainstream" media has a great hook that makes this just alright. (Please note the sarcasm.)
...certain jobs may never be replaced. For example, jobs designing computer chips may vanish because of fundamental changes in chip design or production or because the industry has shipped the jobs overseas, experts say. Or businesses' efforts to boost productivity may mean that computer programs shrink the number of loan officers needed to process applications at a bank.
Erica Groshen, a co-author of the New York Fed study, noted that though the United States manufactures less, white-collar workers increasingly produce goods and services on Information Age assembly lines.
LA Times (subscription required)
Now that they have labeled the well-educated people losing job prospects with a derogatory label, everything is going to be okay. Its just those "white collar assembly line" people having their lives destroyed. (No of course I don't believe that. But please remember this seemed to be okay with a lot of people hurting now when the Mainstream Media were chortling about blue collar people losing their jobs to technological advancement or overseas competition.)
Imagine--and John Kerry had a plan to cut down on offshoring.
