In The News

The Great Skill Recession

Nayan Chanda December 2, 2013
The world has an unemployment problem. Most modern jobs require technological skills, and technology is supplanting increasing numbers of jobs. How this gap, first raised as a possibility by John Maynard Keynes in 1930, is addressed will shape the economic future of the United States, China, India and other nations, explains Nayan Chanda, YaleGlobal editor, in his column for Businessworld....

How Globalization Has Left the 1 Percent Further Ahead

Tavia Grant, Janet McFarland November 28, 2013
Canada is not alone with a widening income divide – a few making great gains while the vast majority struggles with stagnant wages. Analysis from the Globe and Mail points to globalization as the reason. US competition may pressure wages, and the skilled with global appeal are paid more than those with local appeal. “The top 1 per cent of earners [has] seen growing demand for their specialized...

A Global Challenge: Training Engineers for the 21st Century

November 22, 2013
Experts in science, technology, engineering and mathematics – the so-called STEM fields – help grow economies. Yet interest in these fields is down in the US and Europe. “Within industrialized countries, scientific and technical courses are deemed to be difficult, uninteresting and not competitive in terms of salary expectations,” reports ParisTech Review. An introduction to the essay points out...

The Danger of High Home Ownership: Greater Unemployment

David G. Blanchflower and Andrew J. Oswald November 4, 2013
Home ownership is a common goal for societies and individuals. Yet statistical patterns suggest that a high rate of “home ownership weakens the vitality of the labour market and slowly grinds out greater rates of joblessness,” report economists David G. Blanchflower and Andrew J. Oswald in a paper for Chatham House. Home ownership may disrupt efficient functioning of the labor market by reducing...

US Textile Plants Return, With Floors Largely Empty of People

Stephanie Clifford September 23, 2013
Low-cost labor, first in the southern region of the United States and later in developing nations, lured textile mills away from manufacturing centers of New England. Globalization makes the industry turn full circle. Textile mills are up and running once again in the United States, but with fewer jobs because of automation. Stephanie Clifford of the New York Times writes about the return of the...

Why Major in Humanities? Not Just for a Good Job – For a Good Life

Mark Edmundson August 14, 2013
As individuals compete for high-paying jobs, many parents and educators question the value of a humanities degree. Professors in the humanities defend the degree for teaching skills in analysis, writing and logic and serving as a launch pad to practical degrees in medicine, law or business. In an essay for the Washington Post, Mark Edmundson contends that the humanities – including the study of...

US Tech Firms Look Abroad for Engineers

Kim Gittleson June 27, 2013
US tech companies have long complained that most slots in some US university math and tech programs are filled by foreign students, many of whom cannot stay in the country to work. The US reserves 65,000 H-1B visas for workers deemed “highly skilled” – covering not just engineers but teachers, telemarketers and outsourcing staff – and another 20,000 for foreigners with graduate degrees. Conducted...