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10 middle-class jobs that are rapidly vanishing

Written by Jenna Goudreau Monday, 11 July 2011 23:00

Travel agents, proofreaders, transit security all are seeing big declines

“The American dream is dead for the majority of America,” financial guru Suze Orman told Forbes last year, speaking about her upcoming book "The Money Class."

The dream she was referring to isn’t a Cinderella story. Rather, Orman believes the hope of someday owning a home, of working one job for life and retiring at 65 has been crushed by the financial crisis.

“The middle class has disappeared,” she said. “Many of the millions of jobs lost I don’t think are coming back. I am really afraid for the majority of Americans today.”

Are stable, well-paying middle-class jobs an endangered species? Economists say: Sort of.

Forbes.com slideshow: 10 disappearing middle-class jobs

“The idea that one can have a single-earner family, get a good job, keep it for life and have a comfortable living is all but gone,” says Kevin Hallock, professor of labor economics and director of the Institute for Compensation Studies at Cornell University. “Long-term job stability is declining, and there aren’t good unionized jobs like there once were.”

The recession may have just complicated and compounded what was already occurring. Generally, jobs are disappearing where there’s been a technological advance — “where a human was doing something, now a technology is doing it" — or a change in the way that organizations function, says Hallock. And not only are old-fashioned assembly line jobs on the decline, several white-collar office positions are also in jeopardy.

“There has been some long-term decline in middle-income jobs,” says Harry Holzer, Georgetown University economist and co-author of "Where Are All The Good Jobs Going." “Specifically, it’s good-paying production and clerical jobs that are disappearing.”

Forbes.com: The 10 best employers in retail

Holzer is quick to say that though there has been “shrinkage,” he remains confident that there are many good jobs in the middle — they may just look different.

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