- Recovery has created far more low-wage jobs than better-paid ones, By Annie Lowrey, April 27, 2014, New York Times: “The deep recession wiped out primarily high-wage and middle-wage jobs. Yet the strongest employment growth during the sluggish recovery has been in low-wage work, at places like strip malls and fast-food restaurants. In essence, the poor economy has replaced good jobs with bad ones. That is the conclusion of a new report from the National Employment Law Project, a research and advocacy group, analyzing employment trends four years into the recovery…”
- Low-wage jobs proliferate as middle class ones disappear: job growth patterns since the recession, By Olivera Perkins, April 30, 2014, Cleveland Plain Dealer: “Lower-wage jobs have continued to proliferate since the Great Recession, as the economy creates fewer of the mid-wage jobs that have for generations been the backbone of the middle class, according to a new report. The report released this week by the nonprofit National Employment Law Project, or NELP, said that lower-wage industries accounted for 22 percent of the jobs lost during the recession, but 44 percent of employment growth over the past four years. Median hourly pay in lower-wage industries ranged from $9.48 to $13.33, according to the report…”
Tag: Job losses
Sequestration and Long-Term Unemployed
Sequester Hits the Long-Term Unemployed, By Catherine Rampell, July 2, 2013, New York Times: “Sunday was the five-year anniversary of the Emergency Unemployment Compensation program, a federal program signed into law by President George W. Bush that initially added 13 weeks of unemployment benefits to the standard 26 weeks states already offered eligible jobless workers. The 13 additional weeks of benefits were intended to be temporary, but as the recession worsened, Congress decided to keep the program going and even lengthened the amount of time that workers could receive benefits. For a while workers could receive as many as 99 weeks in some states, the longest duration of jobless benefits on record.Those benefits have been pared back over the last year and a half, though, and are being cut more severely now as a result of the across-the-board spending cuts known as the sequester. A new report from the National Employment Law Project calculates exactly how much. . .”
Inadequate Emergency Funds
Many Americans struggle to maintain emergency funds, By Jennifer Elizabeth Austin-Mathewson, July 2, 2013, Deseret News: “When Jessi Stanley received a $15,000 inheritance, she dreamt about all the things she could do with the extra money. She wanted to put a down payment on a new house or buy a new car. But the 48-year-old from North Carolina knew what it was like to be poor, and decided to do something most Americans — according to Bankrate — aren’t doing: put the money in savings. “I saved approximately $40,000 over 14 years,” Stanley said. “A lot was from extra money I received.” That extra money came from tax refunds, money her father gave her that was supposed to be used for a new car and small inheritances. After paying off her car, she continued to make “car payments” to her savings account. According to a survey released last week. . .”