Especially Dr. Robert Lerman, a Professor at the esteemed American University who frequently writes about employment.
While it is often funny to have a patient ask their “therapist” if they “had to go to school to become a PT”, it is quite another for an employment specialist writing on our profession.
Per 31 Aug 2009, WSJ article:
In a paper called “America’s Forgotten Middle-Skill Jobs,” two economists—America University’s Robert Lerman and Georgetown’s Harry Holzer—say that there are still plenty of jobs that don’t require college but pay above the national average. The catch is that for high school graduates to get these jobs, they need to upgrade their skills through apprenticeships, community college, on-the-job training, certification programs, etc.
Mr. Lerman points out that physical therapists earn about $74,000 a year, while power plant operators average $58,000. Both jobs can be done by high school graduates who have had extra training, and both pay above the American mean earnings of $42,000 a year. And American employers continue to complain about a shortage of workers with the kinds of skills these jobs demand.
Kudos to APTA for immediately sending a letter to the editor straightening out an employment economists faux pas.
Perhaps Dr. Lerman will do an in depth employment treatise on physical therapists and understand the difference between a profession that has licensure and one like his own that doesn’t.
Sometimes I wonder if all you have to do to become an economist is read Freakonomics.
