While yesterday's post looked at where the jobs are anticipated to be in the coming decade, it is also helpful to see what happened over the past 10 years in terms of employment. Overall, the picture was not rosy. Indeed, the past decade saw no net job creation. In a similar vein, many households are making less money now (when adjusted for inflation) than they were 10 years ago. While the pain this has created is real, it also should be noted that some of this is due to measurement issues as the late 1990s were times marked by economic growth largely fueled by an investment bubble that subsequently burst while we are currently working through some economic issues that haven’t been seen since prior to the Second World War. As a result, the past decade is bracketed between a high point and what is an historic low.

All that being said, one can only hope that the early signs of improvement in the job picture continue to emerge. Additionally, the trend toward workers returning to school for additional training as well as the emergence of specialized training programs can only lead toward increasing the overall value of the pool of human capital that is available.

Reid Klion