Like We Already Didn't Know

Regardless of whether or not one places much stock in the official rate of unemployment -- I certainly don't -- there is little question that most of the jobs being created these days are of the low wage-no benefits variety.

While the unemployment rate dropped to 9 percent in January, from a two-decade peak of 10.1 percent in October 2009, many of the jobs people are now taking don't match the pay, the hours, or the benefits of the 8.75 million positions that vanished in the recession, according to Paul Ashworth, chief U.S. economist at Capital Economics in Toronto.

This is another way of stating that people who were making living wages and above are now tickled pink if they can find a job making $8 - $12 per hour with little, if any, benefits. Maybe you used to work as an economist, social worker, city planner or factory worker. Now you're almost pleased as punch to flip burgers or greet shoppers at the local Walmart!

"In the last recovery we were adding management jobs at this point, and this time it's disappointing," says Ashworth, who published a report on Jan. 27 about pre- and post-slump employment based on U.S. Labor Dept. data. "The very best jobs, we're still losing those."

Projections from the Bureau of Labor Statistics reinforce his pessimism. While the number of openings for food preparation and serving workers will grow by 394,000 in the decade ending in 2018, the average wage is only $16,430 including tips, based on 2008 data. Meanwhile, the number of posts for financial examiners, who work at financial-services firms to ensure regulatory compliance, will expand by just 11,100. The average pay for examiners is $70,930...

So, here's my question: If most new jobs are in the low paying services sector, who do the experts think is going to have the necessary disposable income to buy this stuff? If the vast majority of the middle class is wiped out, there goes the very people who flock to the malls.

The rich don't frequent McDonald's and KMart. The rich don't place their elderly relatives in community-based nursing homes. The rich don't send their kids to neighborhood pre-schools. They live, work, play and breath in other worlds.

If the rest of us are thrown into modern serfdom, how can we even maintain a service-based economy?