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Title: The Growth of Low-Skill Service Jobs and the Polarization of the US Labor Market

Citation Type: Journal Article

Publication Year: 2013

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Abstract: We offer a unified analysis of the growth of low-skill service occupations between 1980 and 2005 and the concurrent polarization of US employment and wages. We hypothesize that polarization stems from the interaction between consumer preferences, which favor variety over specialization, and the falling cost of automating routine, codifiable job tasks. Applying a spatial equilibrium model, we corroborate four implications of this hypothesis. Local labor markets that specialized in routine tasks differentially adopted information technology, reallocated low-skill labor into service occupations (employment polarization), experienced earnings growth at the tails of the distribution (wage polarization), and received inflows of skilled labor.

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Authors: Dorn, David; Autor, David H.

Periodical (Full): American Economic Review

Issue: 5

Volume: 103

Pages: 1553-1597

Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Labor Force and Occupational Structure

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