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 ...
Your story is a perfect example of how the US now tosses aside its most valuable resource - our human capital. We are mo longer a meritocracy. Your value to society is based upon where you fall in the ‘disadvantaged spectrum’.
Check your PM.
Yep. The Republican party has long abandoned free enterprise for crony capitalism.
Speaking cnservatively, that policy cost us two managers, three testers (with 30 years of combined experience on the contract) and one tech. All of them were excellent workers. The last I heard, that contract was finally lost and the highly educated residue of staff that remained were all cut. This one policy was not by itself responsible for the loss-I could write a book about the stupidities I saw-but it created a leadership vaccuum that was filled by ivory tower academics who cared more about receiving industry accreditation than keeping the contract.
Bull. Pure Bull.
You've been watching too much of the DNC.
So, your ok with a corporation taking the tax breaks from the state, dumping what ever they want into the ground, donate to politicians to legislate in their favor and import foreign workers to avoid paying payroll taxes? I see, then my friend, you are part of the problem!
Re: your post 39, so you don’t have a college degree and are sensitive as hell about it.
I do admire what you did during your military service. The stuff you did seems very impressive and I suspect few could have done the same. OTOH, because of your sensitivity about lacking a degree (and there’s no reason to be upset about it), you seem damned determined to denigrate the college experience in spite of never having experienced it yourself.
P.S. How could it be a typo since you had to have stopped and make a shift on the keyboard to capitalize the “i”?
I just hopped on that to make a point. You do have fine writing skills, much better than some of the stuff I saw in college.
WOW...you hit the nail on the head.
Free Traitors
Love it. Is that your own?
That is exactly what I did when I was working as a BK night manager in college. Not an easy job, to be sure, but I learned a LOT about people, customer service, inventory, equipment maintenance, public perception, extra expenses, OSHA, sales and product promotion, scheduling, managing staff, delegating tasks, fraud and theft (fired 2 folks for stealing), etc.
I was looking at the position from the 1,000 mile view (transferrable skills), not the ground level view.
When it came to the working world, what I learned "flipping burgers" at BK was better preparation than all my time in college.
That is exactly right! And that is what the government fears the most...the entrepreneur, the independent contractor, the sole proprietor...
Why? It is the way the money moves within the smaller company. If I hire IC the money moves differently from taxes to SS to WC...
How’s that Hope and Change working out for everybody? :)
A restaurant chain owner supporting Romney said that he has attorneys and PhDs waiting tables in his establishments. He said they’re excellent employees. Considering they could be sitting on their respective asses and saying “gimmee” to Uncle Sugar, they’re to be admired. And I’m sure they’re SO grateful to Obama for killing the economy.
Hurry Obama!!! Let more illegal aliens in to take these jobs!! Hurry, you evil bastard!!!!!
Obama doesn’t take care of his ‘brother’ because Obama knows who his REAL father is, and it ain’t Barack Sr.!
Thanks for your insight. My McDonald’s essay was started some time ago and has been expanded and edited and still needs to develop the crew concept further. It might be out of date. Apparently the current jobs market includes degreed people that are some way preferable to those lacking one, even with experience.
I am semi retired but have frequent contact with workers involved with shipping. The older ones did not go to college. Some of the younger ones did but don’t last long because they are able to advance either within the various companies or they find a better job elsewhere. The knowledge of computers and various extremely technical devices is absolutely required.
In my mind the reason for college is to learn about a variety of subjects but especially to learn to write, to communicate effectively. Business today is conducted all around the world and the lowest of clerks needs communication skills un thought of even ten years ago.
Then there is the military. I wonder if there was any special training or special skills developed that are transferable. I suppose that varies with the assignments, some do and some don’t.
My purpose in the essay was to point out that McDonald’s is everything in a very small package. By examining everything in extreme detail, a wealth of knowledge and real experience can be gained.
We can only hope that before too long, there will be adequate political change that will allow new products and new jobs to develop.
Anyone who has been paying attention to the push for “outcome based” education knows that service sector jobs are what is intended for the US as part of the redistribution of the wealth of the US to under developed countries.
The original goal based education explanations were complete with talk about preparing students for the types of jobs that were available in the area where they lived. Where I live that meant low level service sector jobs. The idea was that an over educated populace was an unhappy populace and unhappy people are more difficult to control.
Over time, outcome based education came to have more to do with equality than with suitability. They began to talk about equality of outcome as opposed to equality of opportunity. What it really meant was that they were lowering the standards for all, not just the low achievers.
I’ve said for a couple decades that we are headed for a two-tiered economy. Those doing the best will have a high level of saleable skill and the larger portion won’t. I expect it’s going to shake out about 15 / 85 %. Most liberal arts degrees will qualify the holder for a McJob so they shouldn’t waste the money. The days are over when a tiedyed punk could lazyass his way thru four years of daycare and expect to be hired by Microsoft on his way out. One year learning computer aided manufacturing would have been more useful. But that is work and it is that level of commitment to effort that is going to separate the population into two groups. It’s going to take a couple generations to turn that around. Some of the sliders will probably just die off.
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