New Jobs Created Are Nearly All Low-Wage

[Brickbat]

http://blog.aflcio.org/2011/07/27/new-jobs-created-are-nearly-all-low-wage/

So, even as there are still 4.7 workers for every one job, the jobs that are being created are primarily low-wage—and the wages in those jobs have fallen disproportionately, according to a new report by the National Employment Law Project (NELP).

From the first quarter of 2010 through the first quarter of 2011, the most recent data available, lower-wage occupations grew by 3.2 percent, with retail salespersons, office clerks, cashiers, food preparation workers and stock clerks topping the list. Mid-wage occupations, including paralegals, customer service representatives and machinists, grew by only 1.2 percent, while higher-wage occupations declined by 1.2 percent, which includes occupations like engineers, registered nurses and finance workers.

While overall, wages have fallen 0.6 percent since the start of the recession, lower-wage jobs have declined by 2.3 percent since the start of the recession. In mid-range occupations, wages declined by -0.9 percent while wages in higher-wage jobs actually rose by 0.9 percent.

[LiberalEsto]

1. Their plan is working

What can we do to throw a monkey wrench in it?

[Brickbat]

2. Not settle for crap wages, for one.

[TheKentuckian]

3. A tall order when the home fires are completely going out.

[Brickbat]

6. It's never been easy.

[MadHound]

9. Tell that to somebody who hasn't had a job in six months, a year

People are desperate and will settle for anything when they've been out of work that long.

[Brickbat]

12. As I say, it isn't easy for some to stand up for themselves.

[iwishiwas]

4. No surprise. I see all around me.

[raccoon]

5. Who don't know that? Rec'd. nt

[iwishiwas]

8. Gov Walker in WI claimed not to know the saleries of the all

the new jobs he has created in WI. (just last week he claimed that he and his buddies created half of all the jobs in the US!!--yes he DID)---most in tourism. He was asked by a reporter.

[iwishiwas]

7. These last few sentences say it all......

The trend toward low pay preceded the recession. As Holly Sklar points out:

Today’s retail clerks, health aides, child care workers, restaurant workers, security guards and other minimum wage workers have $6,500 less in annual buying power than their 1968 counterparts.

Let’s see. We have employers who won’t hire unemployed workers, an historically wide wealth gap between black and Latino workers and white workers, a 9.2 percent unemployment rate with almost no job creation and the few jobs that are created don’t pay a living wage.

All this means lawmakers on Capitol Hill are focused on America’s jobs crisis, right? Right? Hello…

[demosincebirth]

10. Unionize = bigger middle class.

[Urban Prairie]

11. If a job isn't nailed down here by purely physical necessity, it is vulnerable to

off-shoring and outsourcing, even newly created jobs. Technological improvements such as RFID tags, automation, mergers,acquisions, robotics, decreasing consumer confidence/income/demand/spending, the ever-increasing cost of living, lack of credit/lending/bad credit, the hiring of illegal/seasonal immigrants, and HB1B visas also affect job retention/creation and employment.

The wealthy global corporate capitalists are hell-bent on leveling wages in the US to that which will become comparable to what the cheapest/slave labor peasant earns in third world nations, never mind that the cost of living won't level out at the same time, if it ever will, which it likely won't primarily b/c of being past peak oil production, as well as soaring/skyrocketing energy and medical/healthcare costs.

[femrap]

13. The Internet has cost us

lots of jobs. I hear that Indians are doing first year Law work.