Bloomberg Business Week (04/24/14) Steve Matthews

Some metropolitan areas are experiencing spot labor shortages, and those numbers are expected to rise as the labor market strengthens nationwide. In response, employers are increasing wages, giving current employees more hours, adding benefits, and recruiting prospective workers from other regions. Thirteen percent of the country’s 372 metro areas had jobless rates under 5% in February, the approximate amount that the U.S. Federal Reserve considers full employment. Just two cities had less than 5% four years ago. There were 4.17 million positions open nationwide in February, an increase of 299,000 and the most since January 2008.

Wall Street Journal (04/28/14) Lauren Weber

Although employers have expressed concerns about the impact of a skills gap on productivity and growth within their own companies and the larger economy, the U.S. Department of Labor reports a 40% drop in formal apprenticeship programs that combine on-the-job learning with mentorships and classroom education from 2003 to 2013. Apprenticeships are considered by many to be a solution to the skills gap, but experts say employers often shy away from them due to their association with unions or the fear that employees will seek out better-paying jobs once they have achieved the required skills.

The widespread belief that young people should stay in school and then get a job also has taken a toll on apprenticeship programs, but some experts argue that intensive, on-the-job apprenticeships produce better quality workers than college degrees and internships. Moreover, experts point out that apprenticeships actually boost retention and create loyal workers, as they view apprenticeships as an employers’ investment in their career. Apprenticeships can be offered in any occupation, with South Carolina’s program expanding to including computer professionals and certified nursing assistants and Wisconsin looking to add training for truck driving and high-tech manufacturing, among other professions.

New York Times (04/28/14) Annie Lowrey

The ongoing sluggish economic recovery has seen the strongest employment growth in low-wage work, at places like strip malls and fast-food restaurants, despite the fact the recession wiped out primarily high-wage and middle-wage jobs. A new report from the National Employment Law Project, a labor research and advocacy group, concludes the poor economy has replaced good jobs with bad ones. The report shows that total employment has finally surpassed its pre-recession level, but job losses and gains have been skewed. Higher-wage industries—like accounting and legal work—shed 3.6 million positions during the recession and have added only 2.6 million positions during the recovery. But lower-wage industries lost two million jobs, then added 3.8 million.

With joblessness high and job gains concentrated in low-wage industries, hundreds of thousands of Americans have accepted positions that pay less than they used to make, in some cases, sliding out of the middle class and into the ranks of the working poor. The National Employment Law Project study found that there were about a million fewer jobs in middle-wage industries—including parts of the health care system, loan servicing, and real estate—than there were when the recession hit. Economists worry that even a stronger recovery might not bring back jobs in traditionally middle-class occupations eroded by mechanization and offshoring.