The “Brave New Workers” series tells stories of Americans adapting to a changing economy. This week: after years working in the coal mines of West Virginia, a miner charts a new career in health care.
Source: www.npr.org
This series, Brave New Workers, is all about workers adapting to the shifting economic geographies. Some industries are seen as foundational to a community and there is much angst about the loss of particular jobs. New technologies are disruptive, and the process of job creation/job loss is sometimes referred to as creative destruction. My uncle, once about a time, was a typewriter repairman. Clearly, the personal computer was going to render his niche in the economic system obsolete so he became a web developer. Not everyone successfully makes a seamless transition, but this collection of stories is emblematic of the modern American worker, needing to nimbly adapt to the labor market.
Tags: podcast, industry, manufacturing, labor, economic, USA.
Manufacturing prices are rising, especially in the coastal provinces where factories have usually been agglomerated (also known as Special Economic Zones –SEZs). The more success that China has in manufacturing, land prices will go up, environmental and safety standards will increase. Collectively, this will mean that labor costs for the factories will also be increasing as Chinese workers are not only producing but also becoming consumers of manufactured goods with an increased standard of living. This is changing the spatial patterns of employment in China and will impact Chinese manufacturing’s global influence. Sarah Bednarz recommends this article as “a needed update on the new international division of labor (NIDL).” For more on the topic, see 
GEOGRAPHY EDUCATION 