Unskilled Labour
In the summary, it conveniently paraphrases that "Wilson argues only highly educated and sophisticated workers are in constant demand, whereas the recent addition of unskilled and uneducated individuals to the workforce, no matter their race, are declining in demand."
However, this is worth considering in our contemporary Western society. While there is certainly something to be said for Wilson having written in his own socio-historical context, and not our own, I find it hard to believe that unskilled and uneducated individuals are declining in demand relative to the labour force. It is true that highly sophisticated and educated workers are in demand – manifested nowadays in the higher wage and prestige of skilled/knowledge-based positions like lawyers and doctors; however, I would argue that unskilled labour is largely valuable. It is very much true that given the earth's expanding population, unskilled labour is literally a dime a dozen, but in regards to commodities, what first-world society deems as 'sweatshop' labour is a considerable driving force in many products; so much so that it led to controversies and boycotts against companies like Nike or Joe Fresh, which were alleged to use the aforementioned style of labour. Although I can see why Wilson stated that demand is decreasing (regardless of race), I find it hard to completely disregard the effect of mass labour of demand relative to the labour market especially when it is so cost-effective as it stands now.
I agree that the demand for unskilled labour is still alive today but I think we see that in developed countries that Wilson talks of, we can see a decline in the demand and opportunity in countries like Canada and the USA. For example, since unskilled labour jobs have moved away from Detroit or Southern Ontario in the auto industry and moved to other less developed countries, there is a lesser demand for unskilled labour in those areas. Thus, in a more service and knowledge-based economy in developed countries, there is definitely a demand for higher educated individuals. Globally, I can see unskilled labour still alive and well but locally (our locally), it has decreased due to the mobility of these types of jobs elsewhere and the movement into a service economy in developed countries.
That's a really good point! I also think it's interesting in the same regard that our industries (such as fisheries, mining, and lumber), which were originally Canada's staple resource and physical-based unskilled labour fields, have in the past decades become increasingly more technical, and so as we developed as a nation even our more base-level fundamental labour has changed as well, again demonstrating what you explained as a decline in demand for unskilled labour.
Indeed, essentially unskilled labour is very hard to "make disappear" (until/unless it is automated), but as far as the workplace profile of Canada, unskilled jobs have moved out of the country with the rise of globalisation, and Canada has since taken on a more "tertiary sector" (service sector) role in the global economy.
Yes, globalization is a good example! Wilson also argues that globalization is one of the reasons of decreased demand of the unskilled workers. However out of curiosity; don't Macdonalization require unskilled workers? Maybe capitalism (Macdonalization in this case) also creates demand for unskilled, less educated workers?