Why Hairdressers Are Secure: Their Jobs Can't Be Exported

Before, during and after the recession, demand for one sort of worker has been persistently stronger: jobs that involve assisting or caring for other people-from fast-food workers to home-health aides to nail polishers.

These occupations have one thing in common: They aren't easily automated or outsourced abroad. "You can't send people to China or India for a haircut,"says Israel Kakuriev, 37 years old, who has been cutting hair in midtown Manhattan for the past 20 years. Nor is there, yet, a robot that can cut hair or hold the hand of an elderly woman with Alzheimer's or do all the chores that flight attendants do.

NEIL SHAH AND DAVID WESSEL – THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.

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