The new Geography of Jobs details the changing nature of US employment as production technology has changed. I saw this book as a reference from another book on the implications and dynamics of the way in which supply chains have migrated from domestically to internationally based. It is excellent and remains extremely relevant and even predictive from being published in 2013.
In the new geography of jobs, author Enrico Moretti discusses how the nature of US jobs and manufacturing has been changing for the last 30 years. The economy is becoming service based and offshoring of manufacturing is the norm as production migrates to where labor is cheaper. The author details how the size of the manufacturing labor force has been in almost monotonic decline and how even high technology content goods manufacturing quickly moves offshore despite the US housing the intellectual property. The author discusses how this is the natural consequence of the value chain that has been created where the service sector value add is what the US has come to dominate whereas the manufacturing value add is where low cost labor countries tend to have comparative advantage. The author then spends time on describing what high value service sector jobs entail, describing a job at Pixar for example. On the flipside of the decline in manufacturing is the growth in services and the author shows the growth in jobs associated with scientific R&D, software, pharmaceuticals and the internet- here the charts are the inverse and monotonically increasing. Unfortunately the magnitudes don't necessarily add up so therein lies part of the problem but the point is that the nature of where the US has a comparative advantage is changing and the areas of job growth vs decline are structural. The author spends a lot of time discussing how these sectors which are productive have huge spillovers to the surrounding areas and details the wages of base service jobs in areas of high vs low productivity and the ranges are enormous. The author spends a lot of time on how as the nature of jobs demanded is changing the geography of jobs is changing and gravitating towards the coasts where there are more tech related or finance related areas. The author discusses how the forces of agglomeration are strong as productivity feeds on itself as talented individuals come into close contact and as the geography of employment is changing as well as the education levels required to fill those labor gaps is changing the country is becoming polarized in opportunity set.
The New Geography of Jobs discusses what labor transitions are occurring in the US right now and their effects on prices and opportunities. It gives good perspective on why the country is increasingly divided and see the world so different in opportunity set. The author discusses the economic consequences of the changes we are seeing and gives some policy advice on how to address them. One thing is hard to argue though which is that what value add the US can offer the global economy is fundamentally different to what it was 40 years ago and many of the changes which are creating conflict are structural. This is a must read to better understand the economic consequences of the changing nature of the US comparative advantage and what the country needs to consider when trying to address the negative consequences to certain subsets of the population who are most affected. The continued need of the US to focus on its human capital rather than its manufacturing capital though is almost a given.
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