"The Recession Blew A Hole in Middle Class Jobs"

[applegrove]

The Recession Blew A Hole in Middle Class Jobs

by Bryce Covert at Think Progress

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2014/05/26/3441586/recovery-middle-class-jobs/

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In its latest update, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York reports that “employment has now returned to levels seen prior to the Great Recession,” but adds that “the types of jobs created during the recovery are not the same as those that were lost during the recession.” The vast majority of jobs lost to the economic crisis were middle-skill ones in construction, elementary education, and administrative support.

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Those jobs haven’t returned during the recovery. Instead, the ones being added now are high-skill jobs in engineering, computer programming, medicine, and finance and lower-skilled jobs in food service, retail, health aides, and child care.

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The report points to three different trends behind the skewed job creation. One is that it is a continuation of a decade in which jobs have been increasingly growing at the top and the bottom and hollowing out middle-skill and middle-class work. But the recession itself had two different impacts: a weak housing recovery that has been a drag on bringing back construction jobs, and public sector cuts that have slashed employment in state and local governments, particularly for teachers. The economy has shed 707,000 public sector workers since the recovery began in June 2009, including 309,800 K-12 teachers. This is a sharp reversal from past recessions, which saw substantial public sector growth during the recovery periods.

It might not be all bad news if most of the middle-class workers who lost their jobs were ending up in high-paying ones. But that is not likely to be the case. Low-wage industries, where pay is between $9.48 and $13.33 an hour, have accounted for most of the employment growth four years into the recovery, even though they weren’t where the majority of jobs were lost during the recession. They accounted for 22 percent of the losses and have made up 44 percent of the recovery’s gains, while high-wage industries saw 41 percent of the losses but have only made up 30 percent of the gains.



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[House of Roberts]

1. I've never been more in demand.

Shops are crying for CNC Machinsts with programming experience. If I could relocate, I'd make a killing. I'll do just fine staying put though.

We as a people have to create more demand for middle skill jobs, with a trade policy that puts US trade back in the black. We need to stop doing trade deals with nations that pay their workers so little, they can't even dream of buying the products they make. I know a lot of people who used to make family supporting wages, that can't get by without some kind of public assistance now.

I've been mulling over an idea about a 'Real Trade Act'. This would require importers to the US to take goods instead of cash. It could be implemented incrementally over several years, with increasing percentages of 'goods for goods' until we reached parity of trade.

[hedda_foil]

2. The most ominous part of this piece is at the very end.

And it isn’t likely to reverse course. More than a quarter of American workers are expected to be in low-wage work over the next decade.

[sakabatou]

3. Well duh

[Brigid]

4. Wow. I had no idea.