Better odds for applicants getting into Harvard than McDonald's

[Octafish]

Thank you, Comrade Greenspan!



Another important story Corporate McPravda seems to have missed:

Is America's Middle Class Doomed to Low-Wage Jobs and a Poor Standard of Living?

Increasing numbers of people are flipping burgers, answering telephones, engaged in child care, mopping hallways, and in other low-wage lines of work.

By Andy Kroll
TomDispatch.com
May 8, 2011

Think of it as a parable for these grim economic times. On April 19th, McDonald's launched its first-ever national hiring day, signing up 62,000 new workers at stores throughout the country. For some context, that's more jobs created by one company in a single day than the net job creation of the entire U.S. economy in 2009. And if that boggles the mind, consider how many workers applied to local McDonald's franchises that day and left empty-handed: 938,000 of them. With a 6.2% acceptance rate in its spring hiring blitz, McDonald’s was more selective than the Princeton, Stanford, or Yale University admission offices.

It shouldn’t be surprising that a million souls flocked to McDonald's hoping for a steady paycheck, when nearly 14 million Americans are out of work and nearly a million more are too discouraged even to look for a job. At this point, it apparently made no difference to them that the fast-food industry pays some of the lowest wages around: on average, $8.89 an hour, or barely half the $15.95 hourly average across all American industries.

On an annual basis, the average fast-food worker takes home $20,800, less than half the national average of $43,400. McDonald's appears to pay even worse, at least with its newest hires. In the press release for its national hiring day, the multi-billion-dollar company said it would spend $518 million on the newest round of hires, or $8,354 a head. Hence the Oxford English Dictionary’s definition of "McJob" as "a low-paying job that requires little skill and provides little opportunity for advancement."

Of course, if you read only the headlines, you might think that the jobs picture was improving. The economy added 1.3 million private-sector jobs between February 2010 and January 2011, and the headline unemployment rate edged downward, from 9.8% to 8.8%, between November of last year and March. It inched upward in April, to 9%, but tempering that increase was the news that the economy added 244,000 jobs last month (not including those 62,000 McJobs), beating economists' expectations.

CONTINUED w LINKS...

http://www.alternet.org/economy/150872/mceconomy%3A_is_america%27s_middle_class_doomed_to_low-wage_jobs_and_a_poor_standard_of_living/

Would the chicago School know the answer? If we super-size wages, GNP would go up.

[rfranklin]

1. With higher wages, tax revenues would increase...

and the deficit would disappear. Middle and lower class people spend money and pay taxes. Giving money to the already wealthy only results in speculation in the financial markets.

P.S.--I am putting in my application to Harvard!

[Octafish]

2. You already know more than the PhD's running the show, rfranklin.

Once you're out of school, let's open a franchise. If you do the cooking, I'll clean the dishes and bathrooms. It'd be far more satisfying than working for our corporate overlords.

[zbdent]

3. Isn't that because these days you need the degree from Harvard to

work at McD's???

[Octafish]

8. .Minimum Qualification.

The wizards of the Ivy League have done a swell job getting the Dow to 13,000. It's like Goldman Sachs recruits from Brown.

[villager]

4. Workers with too many options for well-paying work become "unruly,"

...and start demanding things like "benefits," "workplace safety," and more...

Can't have that.

[Octafish]

9. That would be most un-democratic.

Wouldn't want that, would we?



Nice army base you got here, colonel.

We wouldn't want anything to happen to it, would we?

We got bigger fish to fry.

You said, 'fishes.' Ha ha ha ha.

Harvard bailed out Bush oil venture HARKEN

[Mnemosyne]

5. McD's used to be the one place almost anyone in our small rural city

could count on for a job when desperately needed. That changed a few years ago and it is rare for it to hire ever now.

I worry for my grandson's, the children's, futures so much. Better start saving for Harvard I guess.

Thanks, Octafish!

[midnight]

6. Great idea to supersize the wages...

[exboyfil]

7. Maybe McDonalds should have an application fee

like Harvard. More dollars to the bottom line I say and would weed out the applicants further.