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Traces of technology’s impact on the job marketEmployment in many midwage occupations has fallen sharply since 2000. A key reasonis powerful software that runs computers and other devices and allows them to do workhumans have always done. At the same time, there have been beneficiaries.Software engineer jobs are up 39 percent.

Secretariesand

administrativeassistants

Dataentry

workers

Telephoneand

switchboardoperators

Travelagents

Bookkeeping,accountingand auditing

clerks

Wordprocessors

andtypists

SOURCES: Bureau of Labor Statistics; FactSet

NOTE: Comparison uses 2010 data because the BLS changed occupational definitions beginning in 2011.

AP

182

388

632

142

1.1 millionjobs lost in thisoccupationalone

287,000software engineerjobs added in10 years

CHANGE IN TOTAL NUMBER OF JOBS, 2000-2010

All figures in thousands

338

-47% -26% -27%

1,742

4,227

1,297

3,082

-60% -69%-46%

73 12276

Softwareengineers

+39%

739

1,026

2000

Pct. change2010

Ohio is losing middle-class positions

Bernard Condon and Paul WisemanThe Associated Press

F ive years after the start of the Great Reces-sion, the toll is terrifyingly clear: Millionsof middle-class jobs have been lost in

developed countries the world over.And the situation is even worse than it

appears.Most of the jobs will never return, and mil-

lions more are likely to vanish as well, sayexperts who study the labor market. What’smore, these jobs aren’t just being lost to Chinaand other developing countries, and they aren’tjust factory work. Increasingly, jobs are disap-pearing in the service sector, home to two-thirdsof all workers.

They’re being obliterated by technology.

... and so is the rest of the nation, world

Inside: The history of job-killing technology, A2.As machines become smarter, positions

become fewer, A2. A breakdown on where Ohiois losing jobs it classifies as high-tech, A4.See REST, A4

AP FILE

J ob seekers wait in a line at a job fair in Southfield, Mich., in 2011. Half of the 7.5 million jobs lost in the U.S. during the Great Recession were middle-class wages,ranging from $37,000 to $68,000. But only 2 percent of the 3.4 million jobs gained since the recession are at that level.

Technology makesexchanges easierfor foreign students

Loren GensonThe Gazette

GRANGER TWP. — Hostingan exchange student is a loteasier in 2013 than it was 10years ago.

For host families of 15 Chi-nese exchange students atHighland High School, lan-guage barriers can be brokendown easily with a smartphoneapplication.

“Their English is really good,

but if there’s a word they don’tknow, they can put the charac-ter in their phone and it trans-lates into English,” Highlandsenior Bradley Small said. Thefamily of Small, 17, and his sis-ter Bailey, 15, is hosting stu-dent Patrick Xu, also 15.

Patrick is one of 15 studentsfrom China who will spend twoweeks with host families in theHighland school district as part

Police: Motherof alleged bullypunches woman

Loren GensonThe Gazette

BRUNSWICK — A Brunswickwoman was charged withassault after she punchedanother woman in the faceTuesday afternoon while wait-ing to pick up her child at Wil-letts Middle School, accordingto Brunswick police.

As parents waited in theircars for their children to bereleased from school, police

said Connie L. Edmiston, 42, of4234 Grafton Road, punchedanother mother she said calledher son a “bully.”

Based on witness state-ments, police said Edmistonapproached the victim’s carand told her to get out. Whenthe woman rolled down thewindow, Edmiston reachedinside and punched her in theface.

PHOTO PROVIDED

From left, Madeline Bigley shares a moment withChinese guests Xuanxuan “Clovis” Tang and Tao“Vivian” Huan at a welcome breakfast Saturday atHighland High School in Granger Township. See MOTHER, A6

INSIDEON A6

● As cold as it feels, the temperatures aren’t record lows ● The search continues for Megan the Yorkie● Judge orders man with four kids to not have more ● Defendant: Interrogation full of miscommunication

See EASIER, A6

Quite the opposite. Instead of growing employ-ment, most high-tech industries are seeing jobsvanish, according to a Gazette analysis of datacompiled by the Ohio Department of Job andFamily Services:■ Since 2000, employment has declined in 24 of30 industries categorized by the state as bothhigh technology and high wage.■ The net loss over the decade totaled about120,000 jobs — nearly a quarter of the about half-million employed in those industries in 2000.■ The losses aren’t solely the result of the Great

Recession of 2008-09. About half the jobs disap-peared from 2000 through 2006.

While most of the high-tech industry sectors inOhio are manufacturers, many that shed workersare in cutting-edge industries, including aero-space, chemical, computers, turbine and powertransmission, electronics and medical devices.

And although workers in high-tech industriesmake up only about 10 percent of all Ohio work-ers, they earn solidly middle-class wages, averag-ing nearly $67,000 a year in 2011.

David Knox I The Gazette

D oes new technology destroy jobs? Obviously. Just ask the assemblyline worker replaced by robots or the grocery clerk who lost a job toscanners. But there is supposed to be a tradeoff: better jobs in new

industries to take the place of those made obsolete.That’s what happened in the early 20th century when millions of farm

workers replaced by tractors found higher-paying, middle-class jobs in fac-tories and offices in cities. But that isn’t happening this century.

So willthe jobsreturn?

See OHIO, A4

Lewis Horner, chief of work-force research for the OhioBureau of Labor Market Infor-mation, cautioned that someof the jobs may not have disap-peared. He pointed out thatmany manufacturers have out-sourced some of their jobs,such as maintenance andcleaning, to firms classified aspart of the service sector.

“The job is still in the factory,but it’s not counted as being inmanufacturing anymore,”Horner said, citing studies by

Chicago Federal Reserveresearchers.

But Horner acknowledgedOhio has seen substantial,apparently permanent, joblosses in the past decade.

“After 2000, we saw a declinein many jobs that never reap-peared in Ohio,” he said. “Andit’s hit high-tech industries aswell as the more low-techones.”

Horner also noted that thesix high-tech sectors that havegrown, including softwarepublishers, computer systemdesign, drug and medicinemanufacturing and collegesand universities, have hired

relatively few workers —adding fewer than 27,000 newjobs statewide since 2000.

So what’s happening?Horner said some

researchers argue the U.S.economy fundamentally haschanged and the old rules don’tapply.

He cited the work of DavidAutor, a Massachusetts Insti-tute of Technology economist.

“He’s arguing that the Ameri-can workforce is being polar-ized and what we’re seeing isthe growth of a lot of low-skill,low-wage jobs and a group ofhigh-skill, high-wage jobs. Inbetween, you have the loss of

the middle-skill, middle-wagejobs — both white collar andblue collar.”

Mead Wilkins, the director ofMedina County Job and FamilyServices, goes further, arguingthat slower job growth and ahigher level of unemploymentis “the new norm.”

“I think it’s a structuralchange in economy needed tobe globally competitive,” hesaid.

As a result of the downwardpressure on wages in the globaleconomy, many workersalready have dropped out ofthe middle class, he said.

The proportion of familieswho are middle class has beenshrinking for the past decadeand probably will continue toshrink,” he said.

While saying there are “nogood answers,” Wilkins argueda more educated labor force

could help.“We just have to be smarter

than the rest of the world,” hesaid. “That’s the only way we’regoing to continue to be an eco-nomic powerhouse.”

While education is the mostoften cited prescription for thenation’s “jobless recovery,”some experts disagree.

One of the most outspokenis Alan Tonelson, a researcherwith the United States Businessand Industry Council, a Wash-ington-based advocacy grouprepresenting medium andsmall manufacturers.

Tonelson argues educationalone won’t help Americanworkers get jobs because U.S.trade policy gives Third Worldnations an unfair advantage inglobal markets.

China, India and otherdeveloping nations “like everyother government on earthunderstands the value ofimproving its population’s edu-cation and skill levels,” he said.“At the same time, they retrainsuch enormous amounts ofsurplus labor that their wageswill remain very low even forhighly skilled workers.”

Tonelson said the effect ofthe tilted playing field is seenin the continued loss of themarket share held by U.S. firmswithin their own country.

“Companies losing market

share in their own backyardwould never be described assuccesses,” he said in a reportreleased earlier this month.

Tonelson said his researchshowed imports in 2011 hadcaptured a record share of U.S.markets for advanced manu-factured goods, such semicon-ductors, construction machin-ery, high-tech medical equip-ment and machine tools.

Many of those manufactur-ers were among those Ohiohigh-tech industries that haveseen shrinking payrolls in thepast decade.

Bethany Dentler, executivedirector of the Medina CountyEconomic Development Corp.,said it was too early to con-clude the job market will con-tinue to stagnate.

“Anytime you are in a time oftransition and change, it’sgoing to be very painful forthose affected. Right now, it’sthose who have been down-sized and lost their jobs.

“There seems to be a struc-tural shift happening — I agreethose jobs are not comingback. I just happen to believethere are other jobs around thecorner.”

Contact reporter David Knoxat (330) 721-4065 ordknox@medina-gazette.com.

Cyan A4 magenta A4 yellow A4 black A4

A4 Thursday, January 24, 2013 The GazetteFROM PAGE ONE

High-tech jobs are hightailing away

nology, he said, is “the profound sim-plification of the user interface.”

So machines are getting smarterand people are more comfortableusing them. Those factors, combinedwith the financial pressures of theGreat Recession, have led companiesand government agencies to cut jobsthe past five years, yet continue tooperate just as well.

And then there are the meter read-ers like PG&E’s Liscano. Their futurelooks grim.

Southern California Edison fin-

ished its digital meter installationprogram late last year. All but 20,000of its 5.3 million customers havetheir power usage beamed directly tothe utility. Nearly all of the 972 meterreaders in Southern California Edi-son’s territory accepted retirementpackages or were transferred withinthe company, said Pat Lavin of theInternational Brotherhood of Electri-cal Workers. But 92 workers are beinglaid off this month.

“Trying to keep it from happeningwould have been like the Teamstersin the early 1900s trying to stop thecombustion engine,” Lavin said.

“You can’t stand in the way of tech-nology.”

semiconductor material. It was thefirst transistor. A decade later, manyof them were crammed onto a smallchip, dubbed an integrated circuit.Before the transistor, electronicproducts worked with bulky vacuumtubes. Now computing power couldbe miniaturized, a breakthrough thatled to small radios, personal comput-ers, cell phones and an array of otherdevices today.

In 1971, the first email was sent bya Defense Department computerengineer.

The same year, John Blankenbakerbuilt the Kenbak-1, the first com-puter small and cheap enough forthe masses to buy. They didn’t. Fewerthan 50 Kenbak-1s were sold, mostlyto a community college, according tooral history by Blankenbaker at theComputer Museum in Boston. Hiscompany went out of businesswithin two years.

In 1981, the National ScienceFoundation set up a network linking

university computers, a milestone inthe development of the Internet. Itsimpact could scarcely be imaginedthen.

The past three decades, new prod-ucts and innovations have allowedpeople to entertain and informthemselves anywhere, anytime.

In 1983, Motorola introduced thefirst portable cell phone, a 2-poundclunker called the DynaTac 8000x. In1984, the first PDA, or personal digi-tal assistant, was sold — the long-forgotten Psion. In 1994, BellSouthsold its first Simon, the start of astream of ever-smarter smartphonesfrom which you can access virtuallyany information while on the run,including that staple of the tele-phone operator — a phone number.Which helps explain why there werejust 36,000 U.S. operators in 2010,down nearly two-thirds in 10 years.

A job that rose in the same period?Software engineer. They numbered1.03 million in 2010, up nearly40 percent.

BEFOREFrom A2

SMARTFrom A2

OHIOFrom A1

On the Web. See an interactive version of this breakdownon Ohio’s high-tech job losses at www.medina-gazette.com.

AP

Among other tasks, German software maker SAP allows com-panies to use cloud computing to track sales and inventory,

and to produce the reports that federal regulators require,without needing to hire IT employees.

Good-paying, high-tech jobs in Ohio vanishingSince 2000, jobs have disappeared in 24 of the 30 industry sectors classified as both high-tech and high-wageby the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.

INDUSTRY SECTOR NUMBER OF JOBS

Losers 2000 2011 Change Percent Average annualchange wage in 2011

Basic chemical manufacturing 12,517 10,097 -2,420 -19.3% $101,220Manufacturing and reproducingmagnetic and optical media 989 293 -696 -70.4% $98,362Aerospace product and partsmanufacturing 16,959 15,786 -1,173 -6.9% $86,710Pesticide, fertilizer and other agriculturalchemicals manufacturing 2,580 2,224 -356 -13.8% $83,100Communications equipment manufacturing 9,220 2,489 -6,731 -73.0% $79,402Resin, synthetic rubber and artificialsynthetic fiber and filament 5,902 5,327 -575 -9.7% $76,958Motor vehicle manufacturing 39,245 19,405 -19,840 -50.6% $76,519Electrical equipment manufacturing 12,466 7,936 -4,530 -36.3% $71,461Architectural, engineering,and related services 43,939 39,025 -4,914 -11.2% $65,596Paint, coating and adhesive manufacturing 8,951 7,175 -1,776 -19.8% $64,672Computer and peripheralequipment manufacturing 3,792 1,312 -2,480 -65.4% $64,263Other general purpose machinerymanufacturing 32,431 21,619 -10,812 -33.3% $63,604Other chemical product andpreparation manufacturing 9,385 4,945 -4,440 -47.3% $63,080Engine, turbine and power transmissionequipment mfg. 5,133 4,050 -1,083 -21.1% $62,060Soap, cleaning compound manufacturing 9,429 8,214 -1,215 -12.9% $61,562Navigational, measuring, electromedicaland control instruments mfg. 14,804 9,652 -5,152 -34.8% $60,282Semiconductor and other electroniccomponent manufacturing 11,401 6,653 -4,748 -41.6% $59,048Industrial machinery manufacturing 12,692 8,620 -4,072 -32.1% $57,869Motor vehicle parts manufacturing 111,821 57,183 -54,638 -48.9% $57,717Commercial and service industrymachinery mfg. 7,757 3,344 -4,413 -56.9% $51,491Agriculture, construction andmining machinery mfg. 6,645 5,348 -1,297 -19.5% $49,867Medical equipment andsupplies manufacturing 10,947 10,020 -927 -8.5% $46,480Audio and video equipment manufacturing 227 222 -5 -2.2% $45,596Motor vehicle body andtrailer manufacturing 12,838 5,693 -7,145 -55.7% $43,061

Totals and weighted averages 402,070 256,632 -145,438 -36.2% $65,269

INDUSTRY SECTOR NUMBER OF JOBS

Winners 2000 2011 Change Percent Average annualchange wage in 2011

Scientific research and developmentservices 11,879 15,460 3,581 30.1% $85,751Software publishers 4,150 5,142 992 23.9% $80,587Computer systems design andrelated services 46,220 57,653 11,433 24.7% $79,337Pharmaceuticaland medicine manufacturing 4,266 5,221 955 22.4% $71,066Management, scientificand technical consulting 22,741 24,810 2,069 9.1% $70,327Colleges, universitiesand professional schools 27,372 34,427 7,055 25.8% $44,087

Totals and weighted averages: 116,628 142,713 26,085 22.4% $69,704

Combined total: 518,698 399,345 -119,353 -23.0% $66,854

SOURCE: Ohio Department of Job and Family Services

Year after year, the software thatruns computers and an array of othermachines and devices becomes moresophisticated and powerful andcapable of doing more efficientlytasks that humans have always done.For decades, science fiction warnedof a future when we would be archi-tects of our own obsolescence,replaced by our machines; an Associ-ated Press analysis finds that the

future has arrived.

Irrevocable. Jobs that are goingaway aren’t coming back,” said

Andrew McAfee, principal researchscientist at the Center for DigitalBusiness at the Massachusetts Insti-tute of Technology and co-author of“Race Against the Machine.” ‘’I havenever seen a period where comput-ers demonstrated as many skills andabilities as they have over the pastseven years.”

The global economy is beingreshaped by machines that generate

and analyze vast amounts of data; bydevices such as smartphones andtablet computers that let peoplework just about anywhere, evenwhen they’re on the move; bysmarter, nimbler robots; and by serv-ices that let businesses rent comput-ing power when they need it, insteadof installing expensive equipmentand hiring IT staffs to run it. Wholeemployment categories, from secre-taries to travel agents, are disappear-ing.

“There’s no sector of the economythat’s going to get a pass,” said Mar-

tin Ford, who runs a software com-pany and wrote “The Lights in theTunnel,” a book predicting wide-spread job losses. “It’s everywhere.”

The numbers startle even laboreconomists. In the United States, halfof the 7.5 million jobs lost during theGreat Recession paid middle-classwages, ranging from $38,000 to$68,000. But only 2 percent of the3.5 million jobs gained since therecession ended in June 2009 aremidpay. Nearly 70 percent are low-paying jobs; 29 percent pay well.

In the 17 European countries that

use the euro as their currency, thenumbers are even worse. Almost4.3 million low-pay jobs have beengained since mid-2009, but the lossof midpay jobs has never stopped. Atotal of 7.6 million disappeared fromJanuary 2008 through last June.

Some occupations are beneficiar-ies of the march of technology, suchas software engineers and appdesigners for smartphones and tabletcomputers. But, overall, technologyis eliminating far more jobs than it iscreating.

RESTFrom A1

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