PHOTO GALLERY: Technology displaces middle-class jobs

In this Jan. 11 photo, Webb Wheel Products President Duane Ricketts is pictured in front a portion of the company's inventory of brake drums in Cullman, Ala. “Everyone is waiting for the unemployment rate to drop, but I don't know if it will much,” Ricketts says. “Companies in the recession learned to be more efficient, and they're not going to go back.”   |  Dave Martin/The Associated Press

In this Jan. 11 photo, a robot paints brake drums at Webb Wheel Products in Cullman, Ala. Webb Wheel hasn't added a factory worker in three years, though it's making 300,000 more drums annually, a 25 percent increase, because of robots.   |  Dave Martin/The Associated Press

In this March 25, 2009, file photo, job seekers wait to submit applications at a job fair in Beijing, China. According to a three-month AP investigation released in January 2013, millions of middle-class jobs have disappeared from the global economy and aren't just being lost to China and other developing countries, but increasingly, jobs are being replaced by technology.   |  Greg Baker/The Associated Press

In this Feb. 9, 2007, file photo, recent graduates line up to see potential employers at a job fair in Tokyo.   |  David Guttenfelder/The Associated Press

In this June, 15, 2011, file photo, job seekers wait in a line at a job fair in Southfield, Mich. In the United States, half of the 7.5 million jobs lost during the Great Recession were paid middle-class wages, ranging from $37,000 to $68,000. But only 2 percent of the 3.4 million jobs gained since the recession are mid-pay.   |  Paul Sancya/The Associated Press