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Adam Zyglis / Buffalo News, Politicalcartoons
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The news Friday that the economy created just 96,000 new jobs in August is another blow to both the millions of unemployed Americans and the countless working Americans who would like to have a better job.
Here's another piece of troubling news: Even if the job market starts to pick up, it may still be hard for some people to find a really good job.
That’s not just because of the Great Recession and sluggish recovery, although the persistently high unemployment rate of the past five years hasn’t helped matters.
Economists say that over the past 30 years or more, the rise of international competition combined with other changes in the U.S. market have generally made it tougher for people to find good-paying jobs that offer great benefits. That’s especially true for people who lack a college degree or other specialized training.
“You’ve had a shift in the economy, obviously, and the composition of the economy,” said Paul Ashworth, chief North American economist for Capital Economics.
A new analysis by the Center for Economic and Policy Research found that 24 percent of U.S. workers held what they defined as a “bad job” in 2010. By their definition, a bad job paid less than $37,000 a year and lacked health and retirement benefits.
That’s up from 18 percent of people who held a similar bad job in 1979. The salary figures have been adjusted to account for inflation.
John Schmitt, a senior economist with the CEPR, a think tank that receives funding from labor unions and other groups, thinks a big problem is that workers don’t have a lot of leeway to ask their bosses for better wages or benefits. That’s been especially true over the past five years or so, as jobs have become more scarce.
“The key for me is the decline in bargaining power of workers,” he said.
He said that’s not strictly about the decline in unionized workers. Even among non-unionized workers, the fact that so many people are competing for the same job has meant that employers have little incentive to offer big wage hikes or generous benefits.
“Employers know that if this worker gives them any push back at all on wages and benefits, they’re going to hire the person who’s just as qualified who is standing behind them,” Schmitt said.
Even when the unemployment rate was lower, Schmitt said it was getting tougher for many workers to ask for better pay or benefits.
One big factor is competition from other countries, where companies have been able to find workers to do similar work for lower wages.
That’s been most noticeable in U.S. manufacturing, which has shed millions of jobs since the late 1970s and early 1980s. But plenty of white-collar technology and professional workers – including even lawyers – have started to see similar competition from workers in India, China and other countries.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday that manufacturing shed about 11,000 jobs in August. Some of the biggest job gains were in professional and technical services, including computing, and health care.
The long-term outlook shows that this could continue to be a problem.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics' list of the top 10 jobs that are expected to see the most job growth between 2010 and 2020 starts off on a high note. The number of registered nurses, who take home a median salary of $64,690, is expected to increase by 711,900, or 26 percent.
But beyond that, the top 10 list of fast-growing occupations mainly includes jobs that pay much less. Those include retail salespeople, home health aides and personal care aides. All of those jobs pay around $20,000 a year.
Ashworth, the Capital Economics economist, notes that many of the jobs that have seen the briskest U.S. growth can’t be done elsewhere because they require a physical presence. But he notes that many of those jobs, in fields such as health care and food service, also aren’t highly skilled.
“We’re talking about people who help out in nursing homes,” he said. “Those jobs do tend to be poorly paid and, of course, the benefits coverage is much lower.”
If the economy does pick up and more jobs start being added, Ashworth expects that workers will have more power to ask for better wages and benefits. But it’s not clear how long that will take.
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I think there's a lot of high paying jobs out there. Problem is not many people can or are willing to move, or go through the education, or stress and hard work for them. I was looking through ads last night. There are plenty of well paying jobs in the petroleum and gas extraction and pipeline industry.
the oil and petro industry has very good pay and benefits; it is work for healthy and strong men; one of the most dangerous of all professions; except for health care which requires professional degrees, most of the new jobs are service jobs, maids in hotels, fast food, retail commission sales, grocery workers, low end of the wage scale.
Um, news flash, but most companies even in oil and petrol aren't willing to front training $$/time, and I am often told up-front when I apply to these jobs that I will be required to work *minimum* 10 hours of unpaid overtime a week. With my chemical engineering degree, I shouldn't have to even ask for the company to help me with training and treat me like a professional. Overtime should *never* be a required part of a job.
The jobs in the oil and gas industry are short lived ones. Theirs is a boom and bust jobs market.
The answer to true , long lasting , well paying jobs is this. The captains and kings of industry must return our jobs from overseas and recreate them here at home. They will never do that, because it will hurt their bottom line. Apple is a prime example of this. They prefer to use slave labor and charge us top dollar for their stuff. Apple is not alone in this. Just look at the label in your clothing. All major manufactures ( USA companies ) make their goods overseas. Most of the parts in your American car were made overseas and these examples are just the tip of the ice burg.
Apple never manufactured their devices in this country. We are not capable of setting up the type of facilities needed which is why they and other similar companies have contracted out their manufacturing. The Foxconn facility where Apple products are assembled has an employment level of around 250,000. That includes housing the workers on-site. That is not feasible here.
Peter17
All that may be true !
But it still reminds me of the good old days before unions. Remember how coal miners had to work and live before unions ????? Long hours, low pay, had to shop at the company store and live in company housing and towns. China is a mirror image of us in the 1800's. Your argument does not hold water with me. Matter of fact YOU ARE A 1%er. Your WE ARE NOT CAPABLE OF SETTING UP THAT TYPE OF FACILITY gave you away !!!
bob
No, I am not part of the 1% - wish I was. You seem to forget that we live in a different world than the masses in China. You could not even get an EPA permit to construct a facility for 250,000. China built a city of millions to house their labor intensive manufacturing sites. How could that have possibly happened in the U.S.???
Peter17
The only way I counter that is this way.
Look at the auto industry in it's hay-day. How many people did they employ and at how many different locations ( assembly plants and so-forth ). Also look at Boeing air craft . As for EPA permits ( you got me there ). But let us not forget. China is where we were in the 1800's. Company store, company towns. Most Americans do not want to go back to that way of living.
Well, as for travel, you can't expect one spouse to move away...
@bob 1/28: It is a true statement that you make regarding China. However, I think they are more in line with where we were pre-Industrial Revolution era. With that in mind, having the ability to invest your money knowing that China has a much greater population than the US and potentially the rewards would be much greater, would you invest? Because that's what corporations and the job creators did. It's not personal...it's business. Once the inbalanced free trade agreements were signed, the slope was more slippery than a greased pig. There are so many reasons why Peter 17s post is true. Including what you stated that most Americans are not willing to go back to that way of living.
Even in post #1.8, another reason why. Sometimes, you make sacrifices to do what's best for your future and your family. As a country, we have gotten a way from that attitude and there hasn't been a shortage of people or countries to step in.
I agree with saxon. The oil industry is where it's at and will be in the future too. We are only using more oil everday.
CDL jobs are all over the place too and they pay alright. Not the $100k/yr that most want, but it's something.
i don't buy peters argument for 1 second, it is entirely possible to make i-whatevers here, just not under the soul crushing conditions apple demands. what he said could basically be said about every job sent to china/india/ whatever third world nation du jour - they moved because they couldnt abuse the labor and environment here at the price they wanted.
as for the oil industry, i don't think it is going to pan out the way you wish it would. we are running out of oil and as demand increases prices will skyrocket forcing people to use less. its already happening and as we send our good jobs overseas to be good jobs there it raises their standard of living driving up fuel demands more. in short order we are going to find all our third world nations in the china spot- richer than us, but their jobs are leaving too. (not that they will ever experience a crash like our manufacturing and they will be out of new places to exploit. they will never come back here unless we get out of the free trade agreements and re institute tariffs but 3$ an hour is still cheaper than $30 even though its a 30% increase in labor costs over today) we do not have enough oil for the entire world to consume as we do, let alone combining population growth with it.
@aggravatedofficeworker: According to democrats, we have been running out of oil since Jimmy Carter was president. There simply isn't any non-partisan scientifc proof to support your position.
Peter17s point is that the EPA wouldn't give a permit to build an Apple plant (a bit extreme IMO). I do agree that work rules and environmental rules in China and other third world countries have an advantage now. But, the equalizer is the transporting of those goods to the US. As fuel costs rise, corporations will have to charge more. As inflation takes hold in those third world countries, wages will rise and corporations will have to charge more. It will get to the point where it will make sense to manufacture goods in the US again. However, we have to be able to stop the increasing rate of poverty in this country.
Because our leaders from both parties signed inbalanced free trade agreements decades ago, the middle class wages have remained stagnant relative to inflation. Because the economy has become global, we need to have comprehensive tax reform that allows Americans and American business to compete on a level playing field. This tax reform needs to promote investing in America.
Jobs being added, eh? Well, the jobs report that stated some 96,000 were added in August also stated that some 360,000 people dropped out of the workforce by giving up looking for work. The end result is that for each job created in August, four people gave up looking for work.
The economy is going backwards but Obama said that this is encouraging. One would have to be brain damaged to vote for Obama in November.
Wet Willy: And One would have to be BRAIN DEAD to vote for MittTaxPittanceRommel and Lyin'Ryan. The situation is a Horrible Stinking Mess but It IS very solvable without bringing Politaphiles the likes of Rommel and EddiMunster into the picture backed by their Hand in Hand Fellow LexOffendrs in the congress. We are concerned with getting Americans back to work in a SANE Socio/Economic National Fabric which the elite wealthy have totally corrupted including economically ruinous pointless BUT PROFITABLE Wars Here, There and Everywhere. Did you notice what Rommel stated today?? A big mistake for gop and/or Obama decreasing funding for the military.So whoever wants to vote for these two SCOUNDRELS better realize What they intend on doing.
dave20121...some of the claims you make are true....how ever..you must have missed the part where thos same compnay's you refer to paid your congressional reps huge sums to get great breaks to take company's elsewhere...and even better deals on bringing items back to the USA. As for China and other nations..there are big taxes on any items sent from this country to theirs. they range from 5% to 25%.....there are none on items sent to the USA..so please explain just how fair our trade deals are .
@ivan, NC: some of the claims? It's all true and I have no congressional reps in Congress.
I am fully aware of the trade agreements with other nations...which is why I refer to them as "inbalanced" in every post.
The fact is that every trade agreement has been passed with votes from both parties and signed by presidents from both parties.
I didn't miss any points regarding the shipping of jobs overseas. Even without the tax benefits, companies would have moved jobs overseas as a matter of survival. Just how much market share does magnavox or panasonic have these days? If you fail to adapt to the global market, you lose.
Good jobs are easy to fine; they're hard to qualify for. The 3rd world jobs have gone to the 3rd world.
If we don't get a change in November it will be called
That’s not just because of the Great Depression
I agree, Joe. If we don't getrid of incompetent Bozobama and have someone is there who truly knows how to LEAD and make conditions healthy for business, we're going to keep sliding in the wake of Bozobamanomics for a LONG time. Socialism is NEVER the answer, and we'll see that after we dump the little king-wannabe in November.
Give me a freaking break. You political party morons are so much to blame. You're so blind to your own parties shortcomings that you really think one party is better than the other. The govt is broke. Our form of capitalism is broke. We're screwed six ways to Sunday and idiots like you want to blame one clown instead of realizing that all we have are clowns.
This reminds me of the Clinton (job) recovery - only worse. The jobs added in Clinton's administration were mostly low brow jobs that one could not support a family on let alone support themselves on. Same with what's going on now, but worse.
Call me "Mr. Obvious" but: During a recession, employers learn how to get the basic job done with fewer people. The non-value-added type jobs are eliminated. When people leave for whatever reason, they are not likely to be replaced. When a job does open up it may be shut down before it's filled or filled with a 1099 worker who has no benefits. The remaining workers have to do the work of 1.5 people. The company gets used to this and then resists adding staff when things pick up so it takes forever to swing into a real hiring mode, if that ever happens. They've learned how to get what really needs to be done cheaper and eliminated the "fluff".
If they do ever make a real job and benefits available they can't really try to hire someone in "cheap", because they have to contend with equal pay for equal work laws, else someone will eventually sue. So they avoid hiring and post jobs that they never fill.
Meanwhile, our economy never really recovers fully because we have allowed our jobs to be shipped overseas and allowed foreigners to come here and take our jobs...so we never see the good 'ol days - never ever again.
If someone immigrates to this country, takes a job and eventually becomes a citizen, they are no different than our ancestors who all immigrated to this country, unless you happen to be of American Indian heritage.
They are different from our ancestors if they immigrate here illegally, take a job that should go to a legal resident, and then receive amnesty after the fact.
The 96,000 jobs created were just bartenders and servers for the two politcal conventions.
Jobs which require an education are very hard to get. I know personally several highly educated people with PhD, master's degrees who are stuck in low paying jobs. It's a pure question of supply and demand. Jobs like architects, engineers, or chemists are disappearing thanks to technology, outsourcing, and industrial espionage.
That's because most of people with PhDs don't deserve it. Having a PhD these days is not a great asset since the value of the degree has been washed out by the system.
Who "DOES deserve it?" The high school dropouts? Only people with bachelors degrees? Help me understand.
So many of the research jobs have turned into mercenary type contract jobs. No stability, no benefits, just a success-contingent payday and no promise of future projects once the work is done. Then they make you sign a non-disclosure agreement so you can't parlay your new-found expertise into the next gig. The employers are so few and far between, that home ownership and family are a folly, complicating the need to move every year. Everything else is being handled by either poverty wage post-docs, compliments of business/university partnerships, or H-1B visa holders hired after halfhearted domestic talent searches. The brain drain that the administration cries about is because anyone with intelligence is going into law, medicine and finance - career paths where the rewards balance the effort for the credentials. I have let my Ph.D. in chemistry, my multiple patents, and innovations in the field go to rot and got my Commercial Drivers License. I finally have a living wage, benefits and job security and I have bought a home, confident that there will be plenty of jobs near me if my present situation sours.
Work got slow,so been laid off without pay. I will not give up looking for a better job. I thank God for all the good and bad times he never leaves me alone.
Republicans have manipulated this economy to support large businesses to pay less, remove benefits and profit more. State and government employees were vilified for what? Middle class torn to shred to pay for rich tax cuts and wars?!!!
Romney and Ryan are such liars.
Nonsense. The corporate tax code has not changed in 25 years other than some special tax breaks for a few industries like solar, wind and ethanol facilities. 80% of the Bush Era tax cuts, according to the Congressional Budget Office, went and continue to go to those in the middle class and below. Are you advocating giving those up?????
US Federal income from Corporate taxes is lower than any point in recent history. Look it up. You think the tax code hasn't changed? Ok, maybe just the number of ways to evade it.
Texas is the LOWEST wage earning state in America we of all people understand the pain.Unfortune is the law of the land if you have dark skin.The hispanic vote is more important than ever!! RALLY-Hispanics in Texas are the majority today not the minority and every one needs to vote. Just remember what romney said in the primary debates-"self deportation"-He forgets his history is of immigration-and so is mine!!!!
Wrong. Mississippi residents have the lowest incomes in America, and that's been true for years. Texas isn't even close.
So you're hispanic, thank your fellow illegals for your low wages. Hah, a hispanic complaining about low wages - the irony!!
It is documented that there are good paying jobs waiting to be filled-----but not a sufficient number of educated people to fill them!!--------we should be improving education not proposing cutting funding!!!
Really? You personally checked that these are real jobs and not just "looking around" job postings?
STEM jobs (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) actually are sitting vacant across the country. The company I'm working for has had the same five or six IT positions available for over a year, but so few qualified people replying to fill them.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/28/business/smallbusiness/even-with-high-unemployment-some-small-businesses-struggle-to-fill-positions.html?pagewanted=all
It's strange to see our unemployment so stagnatingly high for so long, and see these positions across the country just sitting empty. Quite the indicator that we've become a country chock full of low-skilled laborers but with very little low-skilled jobs left.
I don't want to hear that horses$%t about IT jobs. I'm in IT and have been for 10 years. Yeah there's lots of IT jobs, and they sit unfilled. Because it's IMPOSSIBLE to meet their qualifications. They expect you to know everything in every area! It's like posting a job for a heart specialist who also needs ENT, Orthopedic and respiratory experience.
Just another way for them to rape American workers. Hell, I MIGHT understand if those job paid the same as 2-3 positions combined, but they even expect to get that knowledge at 1/3 the cost!!
Jax A,
If they cannot find the talent, why are they not investing in developing that scarce human resource for themselves? Sounds like they have an incentive to train existing staff; what used to be called career development. Perhaps these long-term vacancies are perpetuated because they'd rather build a case for importing foreign labor, via H-1B visas? Employers can only hope to successfully appeal to the USCIS to bring in a non-American after they have shown a reasonable attempt to find one. Creating impossible skill / qualification profiles is a great means to this end, allowing them to clutter up Monster and Careerbuilder for months with no success; a documented cause for need. Then they find a foreign candidate who is just good enough, and they extend an offer, with a greatly reduced salary, to make up for the shortfall in capability and expenses of sponsoring them. It's happening.
This is normal.
With 310+ M people in the country, most people have to work in low paying jobs.
You can't have half of the country being a high end rocket scientist or a doctor.
The jobs that are out there truly are bull@!$%# jobs
Joe:I try to stay up to date what goes on in my home state,not always right but on employment as well as economy I hope I know what I'm talking about- I wish more people would know more than I-thats why I'm out answering as many ?'s as possible. To the rest:talk to each other about your community and how you can help each other rather than how I can get more than each other
What? Are you high?
Good paying jobs are out there. You just have to have the right skills and education. I have both and have NEVER, EVER been unemployed.
Quality control/assurance/management pays very well with excellent benefits. No matter what industry you work in, you will always be paid well. Have to have the right credentials!
Good jobs are hard to find, considering HALF of the jobs in our country are ones with a salary of less than 25 grand and they mostly don't have health insurance benefits....even jobs that have better pay, with health benefits, by the time you actually get your money with taxes and premiums taken out, you get 25% less than what you worked for...iT SUCKS.
Thankfully what we "know" is quickly spiraling onward - which does cause more frequent turnovers in job classifications. Now add in that in a large portion of products - it is cheaper to toss it than repair it.
That said - our greatest mistake is inherent in the structure of our companies. The top narrowly define the direction/scope and the 'workers' toil to meet that goal. The mistake is that the goals are not defined by the available collective talent within the company.
People complain about goods being made in other countries for cheaper costs and sold here for "top dollar". Many commenters feel that the companies should be made to come back to the U.S. and make products here. I can make any number of products here, with locally grown or produced products, BUT, the cost to you will be more than you will pay. A shirt that costs you $15.00 at Walmart will cost, using the salaries and expenses of the U.S., more than $30-$60 dollars. This is all due to the American people expecting to be paid $15, $20, $25 per hour with benefits. No company will be successful if the price offered to the consumer is one the consumer won't pay. Without consumers, a company can't survive. So, for all those who scream about the companies making products outside the U.S., depriving Americans of jobs and what those companies charge you for their products, I suggest YOU STOP BUYING those products. There are many websites that have locally made, locally produced American products. Just be prepared to pay through the nose for those American produced products. Stop complaining and put your money where your mouth is.
That wouldn't be a problem if salaries were adjusted for 100 years of inflation, and dollar devaluation, or workers got their pay in US silver dollars.
Don't want to hear about that, do you?
You can adjust for inflation or for the man in the moon. As long as there are people, in any country, who will do the work for less than any American, the companies are going to go there. You could always force the U.S. government to stop importing goods because they are too expensive, but you will screw any American businesses that export goods as the other countries in the world will just go buy from someone else due to our policies. I wonder if we should go back to the gold standard and see if that works.
I wasn't alive for most of the 1900's, but from what I understand we made most of our own products then. I've also heard wealth was more evenly distributed from the top down. Oh, and most Americans didn't have new cars, or the latest TVs every 5 years. Imagine, everyone had less luxury, but more people could afford what they needed - like a $25 US-made shirt (your prices are ridiculous). It would be kind of like, maybe, I don't know, a massive middle-class.
There's always a demand for slave labor, and innovators who can create ways to eliminate jobs for human beings.
Thiswas not meant to entertain you.
To all those fortune 500 we the American people DO KNOW your holding jobs hostage to make Obama's look bad -too bad the people that are working for you now will keep paying the price-low benefits-low wages -low esteem with =more illness-subpar productivety-stressful work enviroment-AREN'T WE PROUD!!!!
You, are retarded. This election will not change anything. I simply laugh at the idiots who think it will. Until the government starts working for the people, and not for the corporations, it DOES NOT MATTER who is in office. We are controlled by the govt, who is controlled by the 1%. Until we force the govt to represent everyone, we'll continue to be pawns.
Gov. Romney has promised job creation because as a businessman he claims he knows how to create jobs. But I don't care what party he and like-minded business people, because where are these "magic" jobs and how much do they pay. Will we have to move offshore to be hired for these jobs? Everything that I've read, that most "new" jobs will be in service-sector, lower paying jobs, regardless of one's education for the next 10-20 years.
Please detail these jobs you've promised for the presently unemployed, underemployed, and underpaid w fewer benefits every year. What educational degrees and skills do you want from us and how much are you willing to pay for those that meet those qualifications?
Are you proposing an updated WPA for those unemployed and underemployed? Our infrastructure, for example, is falling apart, yet are any of you super-rich people willing to give up some of your riches gained by offshoring jobs and having one American employee do jobs done by two or three people not long ago to rebuild that infrastructure? No, I don't think so, you'll just move to the Caymans, Switzerland or wherever you stashed millions as tax shelters.
And I'm a registered Republican(at the moment)that makes less than 40K a year in a job that requires a college degree and X number of years of experience. I've seen the spending power of my paycheck fall nearly every year for over 20 years while working harder and doing more. I'm sure there are millions more out there like me with little or no hope of retirement at the rate things have been going.
Cindi, what has Obama proposed, other than all those "shovel ready jobs" that never quite materialized? You know, the ones he just callously jokes about now.
What is Obama's plan for the underemployed? Where is his detailed list? Villifying companies here in the US for their success and keeping America as the country with the highest taxes on corporations just doesn't seem to be working for some strange reason.
As far as offshore accounts, where people invest their own money is up to them. Just ask Debbie Wasserman Schultz:
http://www.politifact.com/florida/statements/2012/jul/18/mary-matalin/debbie-wasserman-schultz-had-offshore-accounts-mit/
Spare us....You're as much a registered republican as much as I'm secretly dating Jessica Alba...just don't tell my wife.
America should ream the repubs and CEOs by not buying their Chinese and other foreign made goods for one year or longer - let's recycle and reuse as much stuff as we can and make them go bankrupt and their workers in those countries starve, before the repubs and CEOs make Americans homeless and starve!!!!!!!!!!!!
Just don't tell Obama and the dems, seeing as how Barry's buddy, Imelt at GE would lose an awful lot of money with all the jobs they've outsourced to the Chinese.