American jobs are getting worse, a new index shows
Although the U.S. is on a record streak for job creation, many Americans still feel like they can't get ahead. It's not their imagination.
The past three decades have seen the economy churn out more and more jobs that offer inadequate pay, a group of researchers found.
"The history of private-sector employment in the U.S. over the past three decades is one of overall degradation in the ability of many American jobs to support households — even those with multiple jobholders," they wrote.
The group wants to popularize a new economic metric, called the Job Quality Index, that goes beyond the usual labor market barometers, which tend to focus on the quantity of employment. To be sure, there has always been plenty of jobs that don't pay well. But, as the index's creators found when crafting their measurement, there is now a growing number of low-paying jobs relative to employment with above-average pay.
"In 1990, the jobs were pretty much evenly divided," said Daniel Alpert, a founder of Westwood Capital and one of the creators of the index. In the process of running the numbers, he said, "We discovered that 63% of all jobs that were created since 1990 were low-wage, low-hour jobs. That was a pretty stunning statistic."
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/american-jobs-are-getting-worse-a-new-index-shows/ar-BBXpfR1?li=BBnbfcN
But that's the way the Republicans like it. If they had their way we wouldn't get paid at all.
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Before the Reaganomics heist and the globalization of labor.
There were problems that needed attention in the late 70s. But the Reaganomics heist and the globalization of labor were not the answer; they just made rich people richer. Some believe that was the beginning of the past 40 years of growing inequality that plagues the world today.
ETA: Part of the jobs problem in the late 70s was that the huge wave of boomers had finished high school and college in the late 60s and early 70s and had taken most of the jobs that were available. The flip side of that is what is happening now with low unemployment due to many boomers reaching retirement age and leaving the workforce.
