Skill (labor) - Relative Supply of Skilled Labor

Relative Supply of Skilled Labor

Education is an important factor in increasing skill level. The increase in number of people attending high schools and colleges contribute to the increase in the supply of skilled labor. Mass education, however, is not the only factor. Immigration is also a big contributor. Immigrants created a bimodal skill distribution, where most immigrants were either low skill or high skill workers. There were few who were in between.

Historical Reference - In the United States such factors have caused an overall increase in the supply of skilled labor during the 20th century. The shift from unskilled to skilled labor can be attributed to increases in human capital, or in other words increasing the efficiency of humans through investment in knowledge. The American boom in public education, specifically high schools, congruently increased the level of human capital and total factor productivity.

Read more about this topic:  Skill (labor)

Famous quotes containing the words relative, supply, skilled and/or labor:

    The ungentlemanly expressions and gasconading conduct of yours relative to me yesterday was in true character of yourself and unmask you to the world and plainly show that they were ebullitions of a base mind ... and flow from a source devoid of every refined sentiment or delicate sensations.
    Andrew Jackson (1767–1845)

    Has God’s supply of tolerable husbands
    Fallen, in fact, so low?
    Or do I always over-value woman
    At the expense of man?
    Do I?
    It might be so.
    Robert Graves (1895–1985)

    As they move into sharing parenting, men often are apprentices to women because they are not yet as skilled in child care. Mothers have to be willing to teach fathers—both by stepping in and showing and by stepping back and letting them learn.
    —Nancy Press Hawley. Ourselves and Our Children, by Boston Women’s Health Book Collective, ch. 6 (1978)

    I’ve studied now Philosophy
    And Jurisprudence, Medicine—
    And even, alas! Theology—
    From end to end with labor keen;
    And here, poor fool! with all my lore
    I stand, no wiser than before.
    Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749–1832)