Since 2001, some 2.9 million private sector jobs have been lost, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Many of those jobs won't ever return, even as the economy recovers, say experts. What's more, this isn't just true for blue-collar workers at places like Pillowtex.

"It's starting to happen in high-tech professions which we felt were 'ours,'" says Nariman Behravesh, chief economist at Global Insights, a consulting firm. "That's what's shocking people."

A new model for work is needed, one that allows all to be productive and share in the economic pie, on both a national and global level. Otherwise, we're in for some cataclysmic consequences, unleashed like a chain of dominoes.