The Demand Increase for the Skilled Worker Throughout history, the labor force has been affected by many changes, especially the industrial revolution, and now similar changes are occurring due to the technological revolution. Both have made an impact on the economy and to the people who comprise the labor market. During the industrial revolution, the unskilled laborers were the group who were most directly helped due to the improvements in factory machines. These machines enabled them to work more efficiently to produce further goods than they had in the past. Likewise, the information revolution is enabling people to be more efficient. The lower-skilled labor force, however, is being hurt and becoming unemployed in this age rather than helped.For years, economists have anticipated mass unemployment created by information technology, but rather than unemployment occurring, employment is shifting from one end of the spectrum of workers to the other. The unemployment rate has fallen to four percent, which is the lowest it has been in thirty years; however, it is true that many jobs are being lost. These jobs are those held by low-skilled workers, but there are even more jobs that are being created for those who are educated and skilled. It is unfortunate for those who are low skilled and losing their jobs due to the fact that there are few employment opportunities they qualify for with their level of skill. For example, information technology may have created advances in the steel industry and replaced a steelworker, thus causing him to lose his job, but the technology developed may have created jobs developing and monitoring and maintaining this technology. The problem rests with the fact that this steelworker, who has just been laid-off, is not the same person who will gain a job due to the increase in technology.This loss of jobs for the unskilled and gain of jobs for the skilled is creating a widening of wage differentia...
