Pres. Obama’s McJobs economy
[Posted by Karl]
Even Steven Greenhouse at the New York Times and his progressive sources are starting to notice:
There’s more unhappy news for the millions of Americans hoping for a surge in the number of good, high-paying jobs — a new report concludes that the great bulk of new jobs created since the economic recovery began are in lower-wage occupations, paying $13.52 or less an hour.
The report by the National Employment Law Project, a liberal research and advocacy group, found that while 60 percent of the jobs lost during the downturn were in midwage occupations, 73 percent of the jobs added since the recession ended had been in lower-wage occupations, like cashier, stocking clerk or food preparation worker.
***
The report found that real wages had shown “a mild decline” since the recession began, of 0.6 percent. For workers in lower-wage occupations, median wages fell 2.3 percent after inflation — partly because many of the newer workers hired had lower wages than others in that group. For workers in midwage occupations, wages slipped by 0.9 percent, while there was some good news for workers in higher-wage occupations — their wages rose by 0.9 percent.
Progressives used to complain about “McJobs” during the Reagan Administration. Indeed, the NYT’s Steven Greenhouse was one of them. The complaints were bogus:
82 per cent of the jobs created during the Reagan recovery were in the higher-paying, higher-skilled occupations (technical, precision production, managerial, and professional). Many of these are “service” jobs, including positions in law, advertising, computers, and medicine. Only 12 per cent of the increase in employment occurred in the lowest-paid, low-skilled service occupations such as retailing and fast-food restaurants.
These days, Ronald McDonald is doing more for the economy than Barack Obama. And yet, the clown needed an ObamaCare waiver and progressive nanny statists cannot help but bash the clown again and again and again. Meanwhile, the president who campaigned on wealth redistribution is looking at an economy where only those already in high-wage jobs are seeing income gains. Political junkies are fixated on the debt ceiling right now. As important as the debt bomb is, continuing unemployment and stagnating wages better explain why the fundamentals do not favor Obama’s re-election campaign.
Update: “The nation has never before had an economic expansion where total employment after two years of recovery was lower than it was at the end of the recession.” The Obama presidency continues to make history.
–Karl
High speed trains, green jobs and Cash for Clunkers! How did that work out?
AZ Bob (aa856e) — 7/28/2011 @ 8:33 amA lot of people are learning to start at the bottom these days. My daughter, while a college student, has had little trouble finding jobs as a waitress, a skilled position that once learned is a pretty good guarantee of being able to find a job anywhere. Far too many kids have no job skills and think a college degree will put them in some well paying position where they will have little real work to do.
Those days are over, certainly while Obama is president.
Mike K (8f3f19) — 7/28/2011 @ 8:38 amNo worries on the political front.
It’s not like the GOP has any ideas on how to stimulate employment, other than pray for an intervention by the invisible hand.
Get a clue, austerity won’t cut it. See what’s happening in the UK if you need a primer on how effective austerity is at stimulating job growth and economic activity.
spartacvs (2d9449) — 7/28/2011 @ 8:43 amYou can run from one thread to another, spartacvs, but you can’t hide.
Go back and answer the many questions I posed, instead of spouting off talking points and posting links that don’t prove what you say they do.
You’re a dishonest, cowardly hack.
Chuck Bartowski (4c6c0c) — 7/28/2011 @ 8:47 am_____________________________________________
See what’s happening in the UK
See what’s happening in Greece.
Meanwhile, I theorize the following society isn’t doing better because its government is too cautious and conservative, too full of Tea-Party type politicians…
Progressives used to complain about “McJobs” during the Reagan Administration.
I guess that’s sort of the reverse side evident today among various reporters who pen articles about the economy and happily insert — but when the news isn’t too positive — the word “unexpected” or “unexpectedly.”
Mark (411533) — 7/28/2011 @ 9:01 amchuck, the last thing that spart is here to do is even attempt to have a real debate with anyone.
He’ll just copy and paste something every few minutes forever, hoping to get a rise out of people. He’s an idiot.
Dustin (b7410e) — 7/28/2011 @ 9:07 amMcF#cked!
∅ (e7577d) — 7/28/2011 @ 9:29 amNot to worry, Chuck! We can mock sparts endlessly in tomorrow Sockpuppet Friday thread. Be patient!
∅ (e7577d) — 7/28/2011 @ 9:31 amThese days, Ronald McDonald is doing more for the economy than Barack Obama. And yet, the clown needed an ObamaCare waiver and progressive nanny statists cannot help but bash the clown again and again and again.
If Ronald’s food didn’t make me blow up like a balloon, I’d eat there day after day just to spite the leftie’s newest bete noir.
Another Chris (c04459) — 7/28/2011 @ 9:39 amI was affiliated with a peace&wonderfulness group during the latter part of the Reagan admin. RR once said his policies must be working since they don’t call it “reaganomics” any longer.
Richard Aubrey (cafc94) — 7/28/2011 @ 9:41 amBut, due to the unfortunate economic improvement, we were commended to read all the papers on hamburger flipping. And to count the “discouraged workers” and the underemployed workers.
Are we still supposed to? My head hurts.
why the fundamentals do not favor Obama’s re-election campaign.
Yes, and we assume the campaign will of course be an issues oriented campaign instead of our dear Community Activist in Chief telling us how Republicans are racist white people who want to kill the elderly, enslave the blacks and Mexicans, bomb the Middle East and sell the country to Rupert Murdoch and the Koch Brothers.
Whereas he is full of good intentions, so bad results shouldn’t count
Hawkins (1fc204) — 7/28/2011 @ 10:04 amOne can imagine the hand of spartacvs — invisible beneath his computer desk — attempting to stimulate some growth and activity, but having to settle for either austerity or
Icy Texan (7a8b45) — 7/28/2011 @ 10:08 ampayingpraying for an intervention.Is “spartacvs” our old friend “truthandjustice”?
AD-RtR/OS! (7ab0c4) — 7/28/2011 @ 10:10 amI know from personal experience that a lot of my employer’s former employees were let go because our employer trimmed off the excess fat, so to speak, going for a leaner and meaner fighting machine. I don’t think that any of those people will ever be rehired, either by my employer or by any other employer, either because they just can’t cut it, or because they have inadequate skills, or because they are unwilling to settle for a lower paying job for which they are better qualified. For their mediocre performance level, they were already being overpaid when they worked here. They need to swallow their pride and recognize that, in today’s market, their mediocre skills and performance just ain’t going to cut it anymore. Only 4.4% of college graduates are unemployed, and 14.4% of people without college degrees are unemployed. But a college degree doesn’t guarantee job security if said college graduate is mediocre. Nowadays it’s survival of the fiitest, folks. If you can’t cut it, bye bye.
Summit, N.J. (75c9eb) — 7/28/2011 @ 10:11 amIt helps to be a brown-noser, though. Seriously, when did you ever hear of a brown-noser who got fired? 🙂
Summit, N.J. (75c9eb) — 7/28/2011 @ 10:22 amSo then the solution for a family facing financial problems is to take out some $1,000,000 credit limit credit cards and go on a spemnding spree?
Michael Ejercito (64388b) — 7/28/2011 @ 10:50 amME, argument won’t work, mock and sarcasm might (though sarc might just fly over its head).
AD-RtR/OS! (7ab0c4) — 7/28/2011 @ 10:56 amMy argument was sarcastic.
Michael Ejercito (64388b) — 7/28/2011 @ 11:28 amMicheal – study up on Keynes, the family analogy is overused and worse than useless.
Spartacvs (532274) — 7/28/2011 @ 11:54 amKeynes had no family, which is why he didn’t care what happened after his death.
Milhouse (ea66e3) — 7/28/2011 @ 11:59 amExcellent post, Karl. In fact, all your posts have been top-notch.
DRJ (a83b8b) — 7/28/2011 @ 11:59 am#13: Sounds like it, AD. Notice how he doesn’t really respond to that. Again, it comes back to why a person would sockpuppet repeatedly. Sounds kind of, well, unbalanced.
Simon Jester (c8876d) — 7/28/2011 @ 12:05 pmIt is ironic that someone like twoofnjustice would trumpet only half of the Keynesian theory. You never see them calling for decreased spending or stockpiling during good economic times.
JD (318f81) — 7/28/2011 @ 12:08 pmi’d be thrilled if i could find a j*b that paid $13.52 an hour…
but this is California, so if it’s out there, some illegal is doing it for $7.50 and sending the money to Mexico while they live on welfare $$ here.
redc1c4 (fb8750) — 7/28/2011 @ 12:18 pmWonder is sockpuppet Michael Hiltzik rides again on this thread. Course he may be feeling nervous now that his ideological buddy Tim Rutten got laid off at the LA Times today. Post #14 seems relevant about mediocrity and Post #15 may have had some effect on Rutten’s career for a while.
Comanche Voter (0e06a9) — 7/28/2011 @ 4:03 pmObama’s promise of equal distribution of wealth is coming true, at least.
Another year of his policies and everyone will be broke!
Estragon (ec6a4b) — 7/28/2011 @ 11:24 pmObama’s policies are very destructive to the very rubes who voted some 90+ % for him.
SPQR (26be8b) — 7/29/2011 @ 3:06 pmCongressional Democrats say that Obama is not a leader.
Starting to find a consensus on something …
SPQR (26be8b) — 7/29/2011 @ 5:43 pmSouth Africa is corrupt imo.
DohBiden (d54602) — 7/29/2011 @ 5:50 pmMexico has half of our unemployment rate
http://tinyurl.com/3wxw49l
I guess their stimulus package must have been that much bigger than ours, no???
So since it would be twice as easy to find a job in their homeland than it is here, why would they still go to all the trouble of making their way here?
Could it possibly be all the handouts and free stuff they get without working here that our Dem friends tell us we couldn’t possibly cut any of?
DAve (ef2251) — 8/1/2011 @ 1:02 am