Fundamental Economic Shift in Process?

That is the question being asked by a number of thought leaders assembled by Wharton about the jobless recovery. Here are a few clips. I suggest you read the whole article. Here for more. (Free subscription required.)

American companies are sending more than just low-skilled jobs offshore. What did the Wharton thought leaders have to say to that point?

"Even so, Wharton management professor Steffanie Wilk wonders about the long-term implications of the trend. Initially, low-skill jobs were the ones sent to foreign firms. “But now we are seeing better jobs, even high-tech jobs, going overseas.” That creates an obstacle for less-skilled American workers. Before, they could take call-center jobs, for example, prove themselves, acquire more skills and advance to better-paying positions. But with call-center jobs leaving the country, “there’s not the ladder that you can climb up,” she says. “We lose the chain of jobs that allowed less-skilled workers to get better skills.”

"In other words, the U.S. economy may be undergoing some sort of deeper change – the tectonic plates of the economy may be shifting, permanently altering the employment landscape. These sorts of shifts, often hastened by technology, happen in economies, and when they do, they can cause dislocation."

Should we be looking at the longer term pattern of globalization? Some say that is exactly what we need to do.

“Maybe what we are seeing is fundamental transformation, but so what?” asks Paul Tiffany, a business historian and Wharton adjunct professor. “In the late 19th century, we saw the same kind of change when the U.S. textile industry migrated from the Northeast to the South. Southern workers got lower wages and were non-union and that was perceived as more conducive to business.” Former textile centers such as Lowell, Mass., were hollowed out, as textile makers moved their operations to places such as Greensboro and Burlington, N.C. Over time, though, other industries developed in the Northeast to fill the void."