published on The Hill
Working-class Americans are being left behind. There are now 44 million working-age adults without college degrees who are not earning a living wage and do not have enough income to maintain a middle-class standard of living.
They come from all races and ethnicities, from rural and urban areas, and they have seen their futures undone by globalization, automation and of course, the Great Recession.
Three-quarters of the jobs lost during the recession were held by those with a high school diploma or less. And through the post-recession recovery, it was the workers with at least some education or training beyond high school who captured nearly all of the job growth.
Those with less education were the first to be cut and were never hired back. Now, those with only a high school education are 50-percent more likely to live in poverty than are those with some college or a two‑year degree.
So, even as economists point out how we are in the tightest labor market since the 1990s, far too many Americans are disconnected from good work.