Economic Restructuring - Demographic Impact

Demographic Impact

As cities experience a loss of manufacturing jobs and growth of services, sociologist Saskia Sassen affirms that a widening of the social hierarchy occurs where high-level, high-income, salaried professional jobs expands in the service industries alongside a greater incidence of low-wage, low-skilled jobs, usually filled by immigrants and minorities. A "missing middle" eventually develops in the wage structure. Several effects of this social polarization include the increasing concentration of the poor, blacks, and Hispanics in large U.S. cities and distinct social forms such as the underclass, informal economy, and entrepreneurial immigrant communities. In addition, the declining manufacturing sector leaves behind strained blue-collared workers who endure chronic unemployment, economic insecurity, and stagnation due to the global economy's capital flight. Wages and unionization rates for manufacturing jobs also decline. One other qualitative dimension involves the feminization of the job supply as more and more women enter the labor force usually in the service sector.

Both costs and benefits are associated with economic restructuring. Greater efficiency, job creation, gentrification, and enhanced national competitiveness are associated with social exclusion and inclusion. The low-skilled, low-income population faces the loss of opportunities, full participation in society, lack of access in labor market and school, weak position in housing markets, limited political participation, and restricted social-cultural integration. Conversely, high-skilled, high-income professionals enjoy social inclusion with modern amenities, conveniences, social participation, and full access to public resources.

Furthermore, sociologist William Julius Wilson argues that the deindustrialization of manufacturing employment have exacerbated joblessness in the poor black community correlating with a rise in single-mother households, high premature mortality rates, and increasing incarceration rates among black males. With privileged African Americans gaining professional upward mobility through affirmative action and equal opportunity sanctions in education and employment, the less-skilled, less-educated African Americans fall behind. This creates a growing economic class division within the black community accentuated by global economic restructuring without government response to the disadvantaged. Furthermore, Wilson asserts that as the black middle class leave the predominantly black inner city neighborhoods, informal employment information networks are eroded. This isolates poor, inner city residents from the labor market compouding the concentration of poverty, welfare dependency, rise of unemployment, and physical isolation in these areas.

City youth are also affected such as in New York City. The declines in education, health care, and social services and the dearth of jobs for those with limited education and training along with the decay of public environments for outdoor play and recreation have all contributed to fewer autonomous outdoor play or "hanging out" places for young people. This in turn affects their gross motor development, cultural build-up, and identity construction. Children become prisoners of home relying on television and other outlets for companionship. Contemporary urban environments restricts the opportunities for children to forge and negotiate peer culture or acquire necessary social skills. Overall, their ecologies have eroded in recent years brought about by global restructuring.