Five fastest growing occupations

[inna]

Jobs ... but low pay
August 26, 2010
http://www.epi.org/economic_snapshots/entry/jobs_..._but_low_pay/

While a lack of jobs is arguably the biggest problem facing the labor market, another major concern is the quality of the jobs that are being created. The Figure presents the five fastest growing occupations between 2006 and 2009 and shows that all but one of them pays below the median wage in May 2009 of $15.95 an hour. The two fastest-growing occupations, home health care and food preparation and serving, pay closer to the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour than the median wage. A food preparation worker’s typical wage of $8.28 an hour would earn an annual salary of $16,560, based on a typical 2,000-hour work year: That salary is just below the 2009 poverty threshold for a family of three. Warehouse stock clerks, another fast-growing occupation, would earn slightly more than $20,000 per year.

In addition, three of the five fastest growing occupations – home health aide, medical assistant and registered nurse -- are in the health care industry. While registered nurses earn a median wage of more than $30 an hour, the disproportionate growth in health care jobs points to a lack of robust job growth across the labor market. The most recent jobs data show that every industry – with the exception of health care, education, and the government – has fewer jobs today than before the recession began, strong evidence that demand is weak across the entire economy.

Recession hits workers’ paychecks
August 31, 2010
http://www.epi.org/publications/entry/bp277

Since the recession started in December 2007, a great deal of attention has been paid to the dramatic loss of jobs, decline in hiring, and the resulting high unemployment in the U.S. labor market. It is important to note, however, that the damaging effects of high unemployment are not just felt by the workers (and the families of workers) who have lost jobs. Workers who have kept their jobs or found new work during this downturn have also suffered from a broad-based collapse of wage growth over the last two years. And with unemployment expected to remain elevated for many years to come, we do not expect the suppression of wage growth to ease anytime soon.

[Lagomorph]

1. They claimed computers would free us to perform other work...

but they didn't tell us it would be low skilled manual labor.

[Lasher]

2. Computers didn't do that to us.

Globalization did it.

[Lagomorph]

3. I went thru the education system...

pre-calculator, we actually had to the most minute calculations on pencil & paper.

The big corporations employed thousands of engineers and mathematicians to do all the number crunching.

If globalization is responsible, it's because the calculators were made in Japan, long before NAFTA and before "outsourcing" was even a word.

[fasttense]

4. They forgot to include prostitute, maid and gardener. n/t

[Javaman]

5. From powerhouse of industry to service industry. nt.

[TBF]

6. Whenever I see those words "service economy" - the thought "slave economy"

comes to mind. That's what we all are now & it's spreading around the world. The factories keep moving in search of even cheaper labor, and everyone else is trapped in "service", which is essentially slavery when you compare our salaries to what the owners (executive suite) makes each year. So we have 3 levels:


Executive Level (owners, millionaires, heirs - top 3% of taxpayers worldwide)
_____________________________________________

Service Level (avg. income $15/hr - which comes out to $30K/yr IF you manage to get full-time hrs)
_____________________________________________

Homeless


Most of us are in the bottom 2 levels. Explain to me again about that "American Dream" thing.

[disillusioned73]

7. When I see "Warehouse stock clerk"...

all I can think about is all the China produced shit coming into our ports and onto our stocking shelves for the "well paid" :sarcasm: stock clerk to manage