Quality of Jobs

February 23, 2004

Much ado has been made over the job situation in America recently. And for good reason. The end of the dot-com boom saw a recession which was coupled with what some would claim to be the worst job losses since the Hoover administration. The White House contends, however, that the unemployment numbers are so severe because many new jobs aren't counted. Despite the threat of outsourcing America will bounce back. New jobs will be created to replace the old ones that have been lost.

What nobody is talking about is the quality of these new jobs being created. How many of the 200,000 uncounted massage therapists have comprehensive health and dental plans? How many of the 300,000 newly-minted manicurists receive an employer-funded pension plan?

Not all jobs are created equal. The average hourly wages of a production worker, like those 90% laid off at RJR Nabisco, was $14.04 in January of 2001. That same year, the average Wal-Mart employee earned $8.23 an hour, or about 41% less. This also does not include employee benefits, which are par for the course in the highly-unionized manufacturing industry, but rare in the service industry and almost nonexistent for new small businesses. A person who lost their job during the past few years and is finally able to now find work will likely discover that because of both a lower salary and reduction in benefits, their financial situation has taken a giant step backwards.

The declining number of jobs available in this country is of immediate concern. The bigger picture, though, is that even if we are in fact adding new jobs to the economy, are those jobs really helping us as much as we'd like to think?