Blue-Collar Bulge to White-Collar Whiplash in Labor Force

The surge in the global supply of medium-skill workers, which drove decades of expansion in trade and raised concerns about rising inequality and the costs of globalization, is over. In the decades ahead, the main shock to global labor markets will come from the sustained rapid expansion in the supply of high-skill workers -- almost all of them from emerging markets, according to analysis by Bloomberg Economics. At the global level, a more highly skilled workforce will be a positive for growth. For high-skill workers in the U.S. and Europe more used to gains than losses from globalization, increased competition from cheaper overseas workers will be a new challenge.