The evidence can be found in the data, which shows higher unemployment for workers in business services and a lower one for people who work in manufacturing.

America’s job market increasingly appears to be splitting into two tracks, economists say, alongside a steady demand for skilled workers and a flagging interest in hiring more “knowledge-based” professionals.

The evidence can be found in the data, which shows a higher unemployment rate for professional and business services workers, and a lower one for people who work in manufacturing.

“It’s a buyer’s market for brain and a seller’s market for brawn, said Aaron Terrazas, chief economist at the jobs and workplace search site Glassdoor.

  • EmpathicVagrant
    -122 months ago
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    Sweaty blue collar labor requires vastly more skill than any white collar job.

    • goodthanks
      162 months ago
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      I don’t think you can generalise white collar jobs that way. I’ve done both, and writing software all day takes way more out of me than when I did manual labour. But some white collar jobs don’t require much effort at all. I wish it was easier to balance using your brain and your body for work.

      • EmpathicVagrant
        -42 months ago
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        I’ll agree with that, really what I meant to get it is that there’s no such thing as unskilled labor and folks belittle specifically blue collar labor often. Divisive of me, so I do apologize.

        • Cosmonauticus
          172 months ago
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          and folks belittle specifically blue collar labor often

          This is a misconception. I hardly ever hear white collar workers belittle blue collar. Unless they’re rich which becomes more of a class thing. On the contrary I can’t count how many times I hear blue collar complaining about how useless white collar workers are.

          • EmpathicVagrant
            -62 months ago
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            I don’t mean white collar folks, I just mean in general it’s looked at as ‘lesser than’ by many. It’s a divisive rhetoric, in either direction, hence my apology for continuing it - no labor is useless and it’s all underpaid

            • Jax
              82 months ago
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              2 months ago
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              This smells an awful lot like projection. Just because blue collar jobs aren’t coveted the same way does not mean that they’re somehow looked down on.

              I say this as a white collar worker who fucking loves the fact that I can pay skilled laborers to do shit for me. I would be shit out of luck without them, and I can’t think of a single person I know that doesn’t feel the same way.

          • EmpathicVagrant
            -42 months ago
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            If you can’t walk in and start doing it and have to learn literally anything, you’re learning a skill.