Many of the jobs for which CTE graduates qualify are in high wage occupations with real economic mobility.
Recent evidence from a variety of countries has found a neat decline in the share of middle wage occupations which has been named the polarization process.
The jobs with the highest expected growth are also among the jobs that are least likely to provide a living wage, occupations like personal care aides (median salary: $19,910 per year), retail sales people ($21,110 per year), home health aides ($20,820 per year), food preparation workers ($18,260 per year), and the list goes on.
According to the National Employment Law Project through the first quarter of 2012, "employment gains in low wage occupations were 2.7 times as fast in mid wage and higher wage occupations," and, "employment in mid-wage occupations has fallen by 7.3percentt".
Moreover, a majority of the jobs created since the recession (58percentt) are in low wage occupations.
Staying home may not be economically feasible for persons in lower wage occupations; these persons are less able to afford losing income as a result of missed work and often lack the job flexibility that would permit them to work at home.
(The fastest-growing low-wage occupation in the U.S. is food service preparation, followed by home health care).
Future research which assesses the extent to which locus of control is linked to labor market outcomes, e.g., wages, occupation, etc., through the design of and selection into incentive contracts would be particularly useful.
Since 2001, employment has grown 8.7 percent in lower-wage occupations and 6.6 percent in high-wage ones.
