How to generate more good jobs for Americans? Conventionally, policy-makers and economists give great weight to two strategies -- education and economic development. Presumably, a better educated workforce will command higher pay. And economic development will generate more jobs, one hopes good jobs. But there are limits to what these two approaches can accomplish, given how they are practiced through flawed government policies in the face of new global conditions. Education per se no longer guarantees good jobs. There is a glut of liberal arts graduates. Global trade has put tens of millions of American workers, however well-trained, into direct competition with low-paid Asian and other third-world workers. In many occupations, increased training makes sense only if we upgrade the character of the jobs. Otherwise, a nurse aide or day-care worker can study more about her craft, but still earn dismal wages. America in fact had a much more equal distribution of income half a century ago...

Low-wage jobs cause stagnant living standards only when they are dead-end jobs. Deliberately designed occupational pathways can enable people to move up as they acquire more skills: Entry-level wages may be low, but people advance beyond them. A plumbing apprentice, a junior associate in a law firm, a medical intern or a news clerk at a metropolitan paper are all low-paid workers on the first rung of a well-paid career. To a very limited extent, career ladders also exist for lower-status jobs in services and manufacturing. A small number of nurse aides advance to nurses, day-care workers to teachers, chambermaids to concierges, tellers to loan officers and factory assemblers to skilled machinists. So why not extend this model to the rest of society? Many career-ladder initiatives are being implemented today by community colleges and organizations, unions and government agencies, as well as employers and employer groups. But can this promising approach offset the broader trends in the...