Monday, June 9, 2014

Jobs are back to pre-recession levels, which isn't great

The reason why it's not such a great thing that U.S. jobs are back to where they were 6-1/2 years ago is that there are 6 million more Americans in the workforce now than there were then. 

That's according to Five Thirty Eight Economics, which also notes that hourly wages are lower now than when the recession ended. New jobs since the recession ended are morel likely to be in retail shops and fast-food restaurants, rather in higher-paying construction and manufacturing.


As the New York Times reported,
The deep recession wiped out primarily high-wage and middle-wage jobs. Yet the strongest employment growth during the sluggish recovery has been in low-wage work, at places like strip malls and fast-food restaurants. 
In essence, the poor economy has replaced good jobs with bad ones. That is the conclusion of a new report from the National Employment Law Project, a research and advocacy group, analyzing employment trends four years into the recovery. 
“Fast food is driving the bulk of the job growth at the low end — the job gains there are absolutely phenomenal,” said Michael Evangelist, the report’s author. “If this is the reality — if these jobs are here to stay and are going to be making up a considerable part of the economy — the question is, how do we make them better?”
Just another reason to oppose job-killing trade deals like the TPP.