In a recent article in an academic journal, Victor Ortego-Marti of the University of California at Riverside found that, “The rate of skills loss is around 3 times larger for workers employed as professionals, technical workers, sales workers, managers and officials, compared to workers employed as craftsmen, foremen and operatives.”

a. Suppose the U.S. economy experiences a severe recession. Would you expect that workers in occupations that require greater skills or training to have more difficulty or less difficulty in finding a job after the recession ends than would workers in occupations that require fewer skills or training, holding all other factors constant? What additional information would you need to make it easier to answer the question? 

b. Suppose that jobs in the United States require increasing amounts of skill. How might that fact affect monetary policy?