Middle class downsizes as its jobs vanish, move away

From The Seattle Times:  http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2013435881_econjobs15.html

The good-paying, predominantly white-collar jobs that once sustained many American communities are disappearing at an alarming pace, keeping the unemployment rate stubbornly high despite the end of the Great Recession.

By Kevin G. Hall
McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON — The good-paying, predominantly white-collar jobs that once sustained many American communities are disappearing at an alarming pace, keeping the unemployment rate stubbornly high despite the end of the Great Recession.

More troubling, these jobs in accounting, financial analysis, commercial printing and a broad array of other mostly white-collar occupations are unlikely to come back, experts predict.

There isn't a single cause. Some of it is explained by changing technology, some of it is the result of automation.
Sending well-paying jobs to low-cost centers abroad is another big part of the story. So is global competition from emerging economies such as China and India.

The result is the same in all cases, however. Jobs that paid well, required skills and produced vital communities are going away and aren't being replaced by anything comparable.

Continue reading at:  http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2013435881_econjobs15.html