Job polarization has squeezed the American middle class

Has the decline in manufacturing and clerical jobs been responsible for the lagging wages of middleskill workers in the United States? To answer this question, Michael Boehm compares the occupational choices and earnings of survey respondents in the 1980s and today. The decline of the middle class has been much debated in the United States and elsewhere in recent years. The first important component of this decline is the fall in the number of well-paid middle-skill jobs in manufacturing and clerical occupations since the 1980s.