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A skilled worker is any worker who has special skill, training, knowledge, and (usually acquired) ability in their work. A skilled worker may have attended a college, university or technical school. Or, a skilled worker may have learned their skills on the job. Examples of skilled labor include software development, paramedics, police officers, physicians, crane operators, painters, plumbers, craftsmen, and accountants. These workers can be either blue-collar or white-collar workers, with varied levels of training or education. == History == In the northern region of the United States, craft unions may have served as the catalyst to ferment a strong solidarity in favor of skilled labor in the period of the Gilded Age (1865-1900).〔Antoine Joseph/Berry/Ingram ''Skilled Worker's Solidarity'', pp. 73-4, Taylor & Francis, 2000 ISBN 978-0-8153-3336-4〕 In the early 1880s, the craft unions of skilled workers walked hand in hand with the Knights of Labor but the harmony did not last long and by 1885, the Knights' leadership became hostile to trade unions. The Knights argued that the specialization of industrialization had undermined the bargaining power of skilled labor. This was partly true in the 'eighties but it had not yet made obsolete the existence of craft unionism.〔Philip S. Foner ''History of the Labor Movement in the United States'', pp. 78-9, International Publishers Co., 1976 ISBN 978-0-7178-0388-0〕 "...The impact of scientific management upon skilled workers should not be overstressed, especially in the period before World War I."〔Dirk Hoerder ''American Labor and Immigration History, 1877-1920s'', p. 153, University of Illinois Press, 1983 ISBN 978-0-252-00963-1〕 The period between 1901 and 1925 signals the rise and fall of the Socialist Party of America which depended on skilled workers. In 1906, with the publication of ''The Jungle'', the most popular voice of socialism in the early 20th century, Upton Sinclair gave them ignorant "...Negroes and the lowest foreigners —Greeks, Roumanians, Sicilians and Slovaks" hell.〔Robert H. Wiebe ''Self-Rule'', pp. 132-3, University of Chicago Press, 1995 ISBN 978-0-226-89562-8〕 There was a divergence in status within the working class between skilled and unskilled labor due to the fall in prices of some products and the skilled workers' rising standard of living after the depression of 1929. Skilled workers were the heart of the labor movement before World War I but during the 1920s, they lost much of their enthusiasm and the movement suffered thereby.〔Y. S. Brenner ''A Short History of Economic Progress'', p. 213, Routledge, 1969 ISBN 978-0-7146-1277-5〕 In the 20th century, in Nazi Germany, the lower class was subdivided into: * agricultural workers, * unskilled and semi-skilled workers, * skilled craft workers, * other skilled workers and * domestic workers.〔Detlef Mülhberger ''Hitler's Followers'', p. 19, Routledge, 1991 ISBN 978-0-415-00802-0〕 After the end of World War II, West Germany surpassed France in the employment of skilled labor needed at a time when industrialization was sweeping Europe at a fast pace. West Germany's preponderance in the training of skilled workers in technical schools, was the main factor to outweigh the balance between the two countries. In the period between 1950 and 1970, the number of technicians and engineers in West Germany rose from 160,000 to approximately 570,000 by promoting skilled workers through the ranks so that those who were performing skilled labor in 1950 had already become technicians and engineers by 1970.〔Norbert Altmann/Christoph Köhler/Pamela Meil ''Technology and Work in German Industry'', p. 279, Routledge, 1992 ISBN 978-0-415-07926-6〕 In the first decade of the 21st century, the average wage of a highly skilled machinist in the United States of America is $3,000 to $4,000 per month. In China, the average wage for a factory worker is $150 a month.〔Thomas L. Friedman ''The World Is Flat'', p. 147, Macmillan, 2007 ISBN 978-0-374-29278-2〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Skilled worker」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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