rodrik179_ ANGELA WEISSAFP via Getty Images_biden workers Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images

How Biden Can Create Good Jobs

Long before the pandemic, the United States had been losing middle-class jobs, owing to automation, deindustrialization, global competition, and the advent of the “gig economy.” Fortunately, if President-elect Joe Biden's administration heeds the evidence about what works, it can mitigate this trend and boost economic recovery.

CAMBRIDGE – The COVID-19 pandemic will leave the US economy with a deeply scarred labor market. More than 20 million jobs have been lost during the crisis, and only half have been regained. Not surprisingly, job losses have hit disadvantaged and less educated workers especially hard.

This aggravates a pre-existing trend. Long before the pandemic, the US labor market was becoming increasingly polarized. Good, middle-class jobs had been disappearing for decades, owing to automation, deindustrialization, global competition, and the advent of the “gig economy.”

To restore the health of America’s economy, society, and polity, President-elect Joe Biden’s administration must answer a straightforward question: “Where will the good jobs come from?”

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