I couldn't help picking up on a slightly different aspect of the article, namely that the jobs that got lost tended to have 'good benefits', which meant retirement and medical plans. The jobs that are replacing them might pay the bills after a fashion, but they aren't putting these folks in shape for the long run.
Of course, like everyone here grappling with our own 'long run' retirement finances-- nest egg, SWR etc etc. I am sympathetic with the employers' sense of despair, too. Properly funding a pension plan and long term medical benefits looks like a herculean task. So the private sector's solution seems to be to restructure, eliminate, outsource, offshore, downsize the pension benefit or anything to make ends meet and dodge the bullet of providing for retirees in perpetuity.
The only sector that isn't doing this seems to be the public sector -- in most cases you can't outsource road work or sewer work or your own city hall. (though there might be a good business opportunity there for some enterprising soul!) As a result, playing futurist for a moment, I'd predict a meaningful (5-10%+?) expansion of the % share of GDP going to government over our lifetimes as we start to look more and more like a European economy. 'Eurosclerosis' will follow as night follows day. (Public Sector jobs simply don't 'create wealth' the way private sector companies do, though of course the public sector jobs do create/maintain the hospitable environment in which the private sector can create wealth). Even if the _number_ of public sector jobs doesn't increase, the relative costs of these jobs will skyrocket (paying for properly funded pensions and medical benefits) while the private sector continues to offer punier terms and benefits, creating this shift in overall size of public sector vis-a-vis private.
Not advocating we 'do' anything about this --I love my public sector as much as anyone, but just noting that this trend seems to have legs (momentum and sustainable, multiple causes) and won't turn around any time soon. Workers or Investors seeing this could presumably make adjustments that would help them benefit over the long run. Get a public sector job, for instance! (And, yes, for investors, I was going to advocate over-weighting emerging markets again, but I'll leave the 'what to do about this' to wiser heads!)
ESRBob