Most “unskilled labor” is heavily skill dependant. You wouldn’t want a chef, builder or plumber who didn’t know what they were doing. And for production: machinists, mechanics and foremen make or break profit with their skills.
So what’s a better name for these jobs?
“Jobs”. Just that.
The entire reason to classify any labor as unskilled is to denigrate it and justify underpaying.
Work is work.
This might be the correct answer tbh.
Work is work, labor is labor.
The entire reason to describe a job as unskilled is to refer to the fact that the skills do not take long to learn or aren’t transferrable. Sometimes those jobs pay less but that has to do with the supply of people capable of doing that job which is always a major factor in what jobs pay.
Skilled labor roles take years to train people in. There are ton of good economic reasons to specifically pay attention to skilled labor as that can tell you a lot about the strength of the economy. If skilled laborers are fleeing something isn’t ok.
Then use the term fungible labor.
Words matter.
Words do matter so why should a scientific field alter their jargon because it offends the emotional sensibilities of those people who have not studied it?
Because it is inaccurate, simple as that.
Except it is not within the context of the field. All the people who are complaining about this have never sat in an economics class. No one thinks that jobs require no skills but some jobs require a tremendous amount of skills that you need to know ahead of time and those are what we call “skilled labor”.
Real professionals care about the public perception of their field. Every major professional gathering in the sciences has a session focused solely on discussion of their jargon and how to communicate effectively with the public.
Why don’t economists care about the public perception of their field?
It would be flabbergasting to think they don’t care, until you realize they are a priesthood, not a profession. They serve the narrow interests of a small group. That group is well-served by denigrating working people.
While there are scientific approaches to the study of economics, the version of economics that makes it into the news is decidedly unscientific.
Why are you commenting on a subject you have no education or experience in? You make this clear with your third paragraph.