When the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported job growth of 180,000 in March, the business press and the Bush administration hailed the announcement as proof of the economy’s resilience and America’s continued prosperity.
Why, then, did our March survey of 800 nonsupervisory workers find that 82 percent feel that working families are falling behind, no matter what they hear about the economy?
Why do more than two thirds believe that the economy is on the wrong track? Why do more than half feel angry or worried about their financial future? Why do half believe that the next generation of Americans will be worse off financially?
If the employment news is so good, why are workers so angry and discouraged?
Maybe they know some of the eight million workers who are still unemployed. Or maybe they know that the unemployment rate for black workers is more than double the rate for white workers, and 25 percent of black teenagers are jobless.
Maybe they know that of the 180,000 jobs created in March, 36,000 were in the retail sector, where the average weekly wage is $382.50, and 19,000 were in food services, where it is $257.80. Meanwhile, 16,000 jobs were lost in manufacturing, where the average weekly wage is $701.17.
Or maybe they just read the press reports on Circuit City’s plans to fire more than 3,500 better-paid workers and replace them with lower-paid workers. And maybe they know that this is just one of the more blatant examples of employers deliberately churning the workforce to reset wages at the lowest possible level.
Maybe they know that across all regions and industries, employers are laying off workers who have been on the job long enough to reach the higher end of the pay scale, and replacing them with new hires who can be brought in at the bottom. Wal-Mart is achieving the same effect by setting pay caps and replacing full-time workers with more part-time employees.
Or maybe workers are already aware of the trend verified in a new report from McKinsey & Co., which found that profits per employee rose 137 percent from 1995-2005 at the nation’s 30 largest companies. At the same time, average weekly wages for production worker rose 36 percent.
Maybe workers know that job creation in itself is not cause to celebrate, particularly when hiring is concentrated at the lower end of the pay scale. When one worker loses a job that pays $700 a week plus full benefits, while two are hired on at $300 a week and no benefits, that’s a net job gain, but a loss for labor’s share of the “resilient” economy.
We all know that the only way to increase labor’s share is to organize.
Greg Tarpinian is the Executive Director of Change to Win.
Comments (1)
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Great post, Greg. Saw it first posted on Daily Kos and gave it a recommend. Also created a "tip jar" for your post as you didn't give yourself one.
Unfortunately, your Daily Kos post didn't stay on the "front page" long enough for many others to see it. That's often how it goes there with the volume of posts the site gets.
Posted by Tom Fahey on April 14, 2007 at 1:09 PM
Posted on April 14, 2007 at 1:09 PM