The finding
In a Brookings Institution address, MIT labour economist David Autor restated his thesis on occupational polarisation: automation does not eliminate work evenly — it compresses the middle. Routine jobs disappear. Those requiring physical or relational judgement hold. The hollowing out is not a forecast. It is already the structure of the current labour market.
Why it matters
Autor describes exactly the mechanism Shiftrade is built to address: the forced migration out of the middle tier, toward work that demands presence, judgement, and human contact. This is not a future crisis. It is the shape of the market today.