PROFILES OF CHANGE: EMPLOYMENT, EARNINGS, AND OCCUPATIONS FROM 1990-2013

April 20, 2015— 

There has been tremendous focus in recent years on the plight of the typical American worker. With discussion among policymakers and the media around the impacts of globalization, technology, and other forces of change on the labor market, there are endless anecdotes describing the changing nature of work in the United States. This is a topic area in which the Hamilton Project has taken an active interest. In previous papers, the Project has considered the future of work, declining earnings for the median male worker, and the disparate earnings of those with different levels or types of education. 

In this economic analysis, The Hamilton Project takes a careful look at the data to examine what has been happening to America’s workers since 1990, paying particular interest to differences across workers with different levels of education. This analysis includes an in-depth exploration of the profiles of eight distinct categories of workers over more than two decades. In addition, an accompanying interactive feature allows users to further explore these eight profiles by comparing employment, occupational, and earnings patterns between 1990 and 2013. A technical appendix describes the data and our methodology in more detail.