Posted on 09/06/2012 4:16:43 AM PDT by tobyhill
There's been a lot of talk in recent years about the "hollowing out" of the American middle class.
A new study by the National Employment Law Project (NELP) confirms the troubling trend.
NELP broke down jobs into low/ middle/and high-wage groups based on median incomes. Looking at the period from early 2008 through the first quarter of 2012, the study found: "High-wage" occupations accounted for 19% of the jobs lost during the Great Recession and 20% of the jobs gained during the recovery. "Mid-wage" occupations suffered 60% of job losses during the recession but only 22% of the growth during the recovery. "Low-wage" occupations accounted for 21% of the losses and a whopping 58% of the growth.
In other words, NELP found what many Americans already know: The market for middle class jobs has shrunk and most of the jobs that have been created during the recession are in low-income areas like retail and food services.
"In short, America's good jobs deficit continues," NELP said in a summary of the study. "Policymakers have understandably been focused on the urgent goal of getting U.S. employment back to where it was before the recession…but our findings underscore that job quality is rapidly emerging as a second front in the struggling economy."
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
It’s also the absurd situation where too many jobs require a bachelor’s degree that DONT need one.
Pay tens of thousands of dollars on classes just to obtain a 10/hr position that has nothing to do with any of them.
People, especially people that graduated back when schools didnt suck, and didnt require you to go to college for the basics, cant even apply because they worked their entire adult life!
All thy have left is flipping burgers!
One thing our governement could do to help out this situation is to lower the corporate tax. Very simple fix to keep jobs in this country.
I hears ya (says the guy who worked his entire life and didn’t go to college). It is possible in most organizations to waive the college requirement when hiring. Unfortunately, most managers are lazy and just circular file all resumes that don’t list a degree. I don’t. We just hired two American HS grads to do database work, because I tested them and they are darned good at it.
There are plenty of McMorons to fill those McJob positions!
Go to work for McDonalds and consider it as going to school. Rather than come up with a bunch of bucks for tuition, Get a job at MD and pay extreme attention to what is taking place. Get paid for your efforts in the process. Set a limit. Go one year or maybe a year and a half. Be dedicated to the task the same as if you were paying thousands of dollars at a college.
The concept involves looking at McDonalds as an industrial microcosm . Mc Donalds is very much like a factory with hundreds of employees except smaller. MD also has a retail arm in addition to the manufacturing arm. To grasp how things are done in the manufacturing and business world, MD is small enough to observe all the operations that can be studied in detail and the study extrapolated to the world. MD is chosen because it is truly a global company and one if not the very best successful business to be studied.
The big question, the goal of the going to MD as school, is to discover in detail what is MD? Why does it exist?
As a study aid, a laptop computer would be beneficial. The computer can be used to keep notes and to make and record lists. Homework is making notes and expanding the lists, making entries into the big list of things learned and things to be explored further
Most McDonalds employees don’t flip burgers, they are in sales. At McDonalds if you apply your self and study what is happening you can develop a good understanding of sales and customer service. The front line, the people on the counter, have an opportunity to meet and greet a wide cross section of customers, of people. The very act of asking” how can I help you” engages the customer in a business transaction. The customers can be observed and then studied in the abstract. Make a list. What kinds of customers, what do they want, what do they need, how does MD meet their wants and needs, what wants and needs are not met, should every want and need be met? da
If you clean up, study the various chemicals and cleaners. Read the MSDS documents and learn a lot about OSHA, chemicals and government regulation. Learn what they do and why they do it. Learn why someone made and effort to obtain each of the specific cleaning products. Understand the process and how it relates to government regulations. Learn why MD wants the task not only performed but the reason for doing it. Learn if there is and external requirement such as a local or federal regulation. Learn about the regulation and why it exists. Learn if MD made the rule and how the rule makes the product better.
Somewhere there are posters. The posters are mandated by the government and outline the various employment laws. The posters are the basis for the interaction of business and government. They might seem overly complex and quite boring but they are a major part of the lesson. Study the posters and develop a total understanding of what they mean. Learn how the government and business interact and why.
Hang out with the manager and study and learn the flow of goods. Learn the basics of purchasing. study the inventory flow and learn how inventory management keeps the company rolling.
A typical Mc Donalds store is a mega industry on a micro scale They obtain raw materials hire labor and manufacture a product to very tight specifications. The process is typical of all manufacturing, only the product, the manufacturing equipment and size are different.
The principles of how raw materials are obtained, moved around, stored, and used apply to all business and manufacturing. A thorough understanding of the various tasks and processes involved will be useful elsewhere. The lessons can be expanded to a basic understanding of product quality and quality control The business and all the jobs there are absolutely dependent on the quality of the product.
Tight specifications, what are the specifications, where did they come from, why have the specifications, how are they met, who enforces the specifications and assures consistent quality? These are all valuable lessons to be learned in the micro factory. The answers can be learned by paying attention and carefully watching what is actually happening throughout the place..
The subject of raw materials is very important area of study. One of the lists or perhaps several of the lists would be of various raw materials or raw material categories. . Just what and how many raw materials is required to keep the place running? A list describing the material, where it comes from and exactly how the material is used can provide extremely valuable insights.
Then there is the matter of human resources. A one year study of the flow of people in and out and retained could result in a master’s degree paper on proper use and abuse of labor resources.
The concept of a crew, a team
Then there is cash. A study of cash management could provide a detailed insight into cash, banking and the importance of plastic payments to a small business.
The MD school you choose might be near home or across town but it is merely one of many. A whole nother different course of study is what happens at and to MD outside the local operation? How does your store relate to a regional and national and global network of stores.
Back to bhe big question. Why does your school exist? Why do we have Md’s. The answer to that question applies to each and every business and manufacturing operation in the country. The answer is to make the owners a profit. Each and every item on all the various lists that will be developed in the school process is there to assure a profit. Proving that statement is the goal of the school and learning the reasons is the way the proof is obtained
It is all there for free. as a matter of fact one can get paid while at this school. All it takes is a proper frame of mind and a desire. Everything there is something to be learned
An interviewer will be blown out of her shoes when the lessons set out and learned are recounted in extreme detail.
Sure are lots of old people working at Home Depot, too. I praise them for hiring them. But most of them are underemployed thanks to this economy.
Reality does not backup your hypothesis. My son just got out of the Army, which is a lot more demanding that “flipping burger”, and he applied for several jobs which did NOT require a degree. He was turned down because his “competitors” had degrees (not necessarily in the field) even though he had 4 years of real experience. College is being used to identify conformists. Those that conform are easy to manage, those that chose alternate paths to life are too difficult to manage. The current corporate environment does not maintain qualified managers, just accountants posing as managers. This is why the large companies continue to lobby for more H1B Visas for foreign workers, easy to manage.
Good post. I remember back in the 1980’s, the Dems were making the argument that we were losing manufacturing jobs and turning everyone into hamburger flippers. Ah, the more things change......
Which is utterly HILARIOUS given the Dems proclaimed such under the Bush 8-year administration.....that they could do better..........! =.=
The Free Traitors are pleased. It makes Free traitors angry that ANYTHING is still manufactured in the USA.
see post #13
Typical of third-world tinhats.
He’s transparent alright - we see right through him.
Agreed. My former company is an example. Middle and upper management have mostly been made into accountants, no matter what their backgrounds are.
My former job is an example of bad accounting. I had 24 years experience, knew the job as well as or better than my manager (which made him mad, so he jumped on my occaisonal mistake).
He and his manager decided that I cost too much, so they laid me off. They then hired two young women at low salaries, although they were given pay grades that were 2 or 3 levels above mine.
Well, one of the women didn't like the job and quit after 3 weeks, and the other reportedly had an aversion to hard work. After I laughed in my former managers face, I lost interest and don't know what happened.
I have been unable to find a job in my field, so I have retired and will be fleeing Maryland to my sisters place in rural Oregon, where I can buy some guns and be a prepper, just like most of the people in that area.
The Economist publishes a yearly “Big Mac” index for the very reasons you postulate.
My 30 years in the IT field, after 7+ years in the military, does not get me hired either. Understand your frustration.
What we have now is fascism without the goose stepping parades....
The middle is being gutted, downgraded to a low paying nonexempt position with impossible expectations for qualifications and experience on the one end, and goldplated up to the executive suite on the other, with three former midlevel jobs with very specific skillsets all rolled into one that pays less than double any one of them, and MBA required.
They want to advertise positions to fill but don’t want to fill them, in other words. Weird, but this does appear to be the case. I’ve been monitoring positions in my field(s) for going on four years now, with an eye to pursuing any that appear to hold promise.
Put it this way, I’m still where I landed after shutting my company down, working for a former customer.
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