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America’s Remaining Jobs Are Not The Most Productive

Published 03/30/07 Amber Metcalf - Print Article
E-mail - editor@economyincisis.org

The top jobs for Americans are neither valuable for the country nor achievable for the majority of the nation.  Research conducted by Money Magazine and Salary.com showed the 20 best jobs for young Americans belong solely to the service industry, in a servant economy .

What’s wrong with the service industry?  The service industry creates an intangible product that is therefore non-tradable and unbeneficial for our country.  Service companies sell just that: a service (example: giving each other hair cuts).  Since this is not a physical product, the U.S. cannot sell it to competing nations.  The result is money passed around among Americans instead of money coming into the nation from countries that buy our products.

According to the study, staff nurse, personal trainer, and school teacher are among the top 20 jobs for young Americans in addition to several management and specialist positions.  While they may be highly self-satisfying, 72 percent of Americans are not eligible for the nation’s top job titles.  According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the national college graduation rate was 28 percent in 2006.  So in addition to holding no national benefit, these jobs are highly unattainable for nearly three-quarters of the nation because most require a bachelor’s degree. 

The past five years have seen job growth in the service industry only with a net job loss in goods-producing activities.  This is attributed mainly to the exporting of these jobs through outsourcing. 

The U.S. has sent the majority of jobs in the production industry overseas leaving us with service jobs that most of us are not qualified to obtain.  As one-fourth of the nation gets richer in their service-industry positions, the rest of us become rapidly unemployed as more and more industrial jobs leave the country.

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guest says "America Haters" on 04/26/07
I don't like the way that this site writes unpatriotic and unnessary things about our country this a great country that gives you enought for you to survive and also if you dont think so take a look at that fat check you get every week from the AMERICAN ECONOMY i guess we aint so broke!!

guest says "Too many college grads, not enough jobs for them" on 04/04/07

The nation's employment crisis is not merely limitted to blue collar laborers, but it also affects the nation's college graduates.

Although the politicians and media pundits will never point it out, the nation also has a large oversupply of college graduates. Right now, thousands of science PhDs are underemployed working as postdoctorate researchers, and the nation is also producing about twice as many lawyers as the economy can support. Presumably, we have a large oversupply of MBAs too in addition to too many biologists and too many computer programmers (whose jobs were shipped to India or filled by visa holders).

It should also be noted that nursing is essentially a blue collar type of job and not really a desk job nor a real knowledge-based job.

One of the problems is that Americans are engaged in an education arms race. It seems like everyone goes to college, creating an oversupply of college graduates. However, bachelors degrees are not enough, so people head to graduate and professional schools, creating an excess supply of people with advanced degrees and professional degrees.

guest says "opinion of article" on 03/31/07
Americans need to hear more about this situation. Since the '60's - when we produced the the best educated generation the world has known by teachers/professors being paid $10 to $15,000 per year with little if any benifits or pensions till today with teachers/professors being paid far more with benefits and pensions that are the envy of the country and they are producing the worst educated generation to date. Our people are being "dumbed down" and I think it is intentional. America is a mess and the situation is going to get a lot worst with the retirement of the baby boom generation begining in 2008. We're going to need more then luck to get us out of this situation.

editor says "Good article, but..." on 03/30/07
This article is on the right track, but it doesn't go nearly far enough. US private sector job growth is not only limited to services, but to non-tradable domestic services, Along with manugfacturing, there has been a net loss of jobs in every service industry that faces competiotion from imports or outsourcing.

The article states - "According to the study, staff nurse, personal trainer, and school teacher are among the top 20 jobs for young Americans in addition to several management and specialist positions. While they may be highly self-satisfying, 72 percent of Americans are not eligible for the nation's top job titles. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the national college graduation rate was 28 percent in 2006."

This is incorrect. In reality, it's about 3% that are eligible for the top jobs. First of all, only school teachers require a 4 year degree. I have applied for several inner city teaching positions and the competition is intense (in Washington DC there were 1050 candidates for 35 teaching positions). Nursing requires a 2 year degree. Personal traineres don't need a degree. Even in these fields, Americans have to compete with cheaper foreigners brought into the country on H1-B and L-1 work visas. The management and specialized positions require extensive experience in addition to the degree. But where are the jobs for America's engineering, computer science, business, accounting, finance, chemistry, biology, mathematics, and statistics majors? If the Bureau of Labor Statistics'
recent jobs report is correct, the private sector can no longer create jobs for US college graduates.

http://www.mbginfosvcs.com/pdfs/usjobs.pdf

Michael, San Francisco