Transitional Change of Labor Migration from Technology Based to Knowledge Based Economy in United States during 1970 to 2008

Abstract

In the inception of Globalization fueled by the world becoming one large economy, the United States of America, privileged as one of the pioneers in world power had its fair share of changes in terms of political, social and economic disparities. In addition, the Markov Chain Model is applied to American statistical data in the different sectors to determine the extent of movement within the American labor force. Presently, the United States of America is a composite of fifty states and four regions; this is then analyzed from three perspectives: Region, Industry and Time period spanning 39 years. The purpose of this study are to observe the pattern in movement of people to any particular region, to look at the mobility from one sector to another, and also to use past and present data to create a forecast of labor migration patterns for future years to come. The United States of America endured many transformations in the last three decades which brought numerous challenges, success and redefinition of what is presently known as the USA. Also, the economic conversion from primary to secondary and tertiary sector in the time period is considered influential to US labor migration. Therefore, structure change and the movement of the work force from industry to industry are discussed in this paper.