The Economic Future Looks Dark as the Faux Economic Recovery is Primarily Low-Paying Jobs

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/economy/152929/the_economic_future_looks_dark_as_the_faux_economic_recovery_is_primarily_low-paying_jobs_/

The current "recovery" is actually deepening our deficit of good jobs.
November 1, 2011 |

Major newspapers last week reported a trend that won’t come as a surprise to working Americans: incomes are falling. In fact, median household income, adjusted for inflation, has fallen faster since the recession ended than during the recession itself. Analysts point to high unemployment and weak economic growth as the culprits, but that is only part of the story.

Just as the country struggles to confront a seemingly insurmountable jobs deficit, America’s chronic low-wage problem is reasserting itself with a vengeance. Here are three ways to understand just how severe the problem is.

First, the current recovery is actually deepening our deficit of good jobs. During the Great Recession, the jobs we lost were concentrated in mid-wage occupations like paralegals, health technicians, administrative assistants and bus drivers, making $15 to $20 an hour. But so far in this weak recovery, employment growth has largely come from low-wage occupations like retail workers, office and stock clerks, restaurant staff and child care aids – most making $8 to $10 an hour. There has been only minimal growth in mid-wage occupations, and net losses in those that pay higher.

[marmar]

1. How refreshing, a B.S.-free analysis.

k/r

[xchrom]

2. i thought so, too. nt

[DCBob]

3. This is isnt necessarily surprising.. one who expect lower paying jobs to come back first..

The question is will those higher paying jobs ever come back to the level they were before. That remains to be seen.

[raccoon]

4. I sure wouldn't count on it. nt

[Citizen Worker]

5. Deindustrialization has been underway since United States Steel bought Marathon Oil instead of

building a state of the art steel mill. There won't be a turnaround in jobs until we adopt a national industrial policy with the priority of retaining basic industry. Anything short of that is blowing in the wind.