Report: New U.S. Jobs Are Low-Wage
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More than a million private-sector jobs were added to the U.S. economy during the past 12 months, but they were mainly mid- and lower-wage jobs, a new report from the National Employment Law Project (NELP) finds.
The heavy growth in industries like temporary employment services, restaurants and retail and in nursing and residential care facilities, which pay median wages below $13 an hour, suggests that not only are there fewer job opportunities overall now than before the recession, there are fewer well-paying jobs.
While lower-wage industries constituted 23 percent of job loss, they accounted for 49 percent of recent growth. Higher-wage jobs that pay $19 an hour or more made up 40 percent of the job loss, but only 14 percent of job growth.
Inequality Could Keep Economy from Full Recovery
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The federal stimulus package is a good way to jump-start our economy, but it is not enough to solve the deep crisis of inequality that has been building in this country for decades. A recent article says the government needs to act quickly to start addressing the growing income gap.
In an article in The Nation online, Christine Owens and Annette Bernhardt, executive director and policy co-director, respectively, of the National Employment Law Project (NELP), say working families were struggling to survive even before the current recession. Although U.S. workers are more productive than ever, they are faced with stagnant wages, disappearing benefits and little job security. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that eight of the top 10 occupations projected to generate the most jobs by 2016 are low-wage jobs in the service sector.
