“Unemployment Falls Fast in U.S. If Men Get College Degree”

The U.S. work­place is polar­iz­ing between the edu­ca­tion haves and have-nots, says David Autor, pro­fes­sor of eco­nom­ics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. So-called mid­dle-skill jobs, typ­i­cal­ly well-pay­ing work that doesn’t require exten­sive high­er edu­ca­tion, are van­ish­ing, divid­ing the labor force into high- and low-skill posi­tions. While women are mov­ing up the knowl­edge lad­der, male edu­ca­tion­al attain­ment is grow­ing at a slow­er rate.

“It is ter­rif­ic that women are get­ting high­er lev­els of edu­ca­tion,” Autor says. “The prob­lem is that males are not.”