The Homa Files

Even when the U.S. labor market finally starts adding more workers than it loses, many of the unemployed will find that the types of jobs they once had simply don’t exist anymore.

The downturn that started in December 2007 delivered a body blow to U.S. workers. In two years, the economy shed 7.2 million jobs, pushing the jobless rate from 5% to 10%, according to the Labor Department. The severity of the recession is reshaping the labor market. Some lost jobs will come back. But some are gone forever, going the way of typewriter repairmen and streetcar operators.

Many of the jobs created by the booms in the housing and credit markets, for example, have likely been permanently erased by the subsequent bust.

For more highly educated workers, finance may no longer offer as many high-paying jobs as it has in the past. Since the start of the recession, the financial sector has lost 548,000 jobs, or 6.6% of its work force. Experts predict that there will be further pressure on financial jobs.

Excerpted from WSJ: Even in a Recovery, Some Jobs Won’t Return, Jan. 12, 2010 
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB126325594634725459.html?mod=WSJ_hps_MIDDLEThirdNews

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