'Is the Demand for Skill Falling?'

Mark thoma notes a reference to 'Is the Demand for Skill Falling?'

The referenced paper suggests that:

…in response to this demand reversal, high-skilled workers have moved down the occupational ladder and have begun to perform jobs traditionally performed by lower-skilled workers. This de-skilling process, in turn, results in high-skilled workers pushing low-skilled workers even further down the occupational ladder and, to some degree, out of the labor force all together.

This would also run contrary to the narrative that people are not being hired because they are over-qualified.

If this conclusion is true, then we have:

• A stratum of disgruntled workers who are over-qualified for their current jobs and have a large student debt to pay off; and
• A stratum of disgruntled unemployed workers who are experiencing the harshness of being unemployed.

These conditions could lead to a revolt of some sort. It will probably be a fascist one if the first startum revolts first as more educated workers tend to lean towards the conservative end of the political spectrum.