Why are you broke? page 3 of 5
economy and what's ahead
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If Things Are So Great, Why are you broke? page 3 of 5 |
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The truth about the economy and what's ahead |
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Doug Henwood | |||
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In fact, sprinkled among the references to "analysts" and "top executives" are sales clerks, truck drivers, receptionists, food
counter workers, and waitresses. Of the top 30 occupations, about 40 percent of job growth will be among those in the
lowest quarter of the earnings distribution, while only 28 percent will be in the top-paying percentile. Almost two-thirds of
the jobs on the list will not require a college degree.
This is hardly a picture of mass upscaling. Back in 1979, around the time when Business Week predicted the death of the stock market, the magazine also claimed that the yet-unnamed Generation X would "enjoy better entry-level jobs, higher relative income, and faster promotions because of sparser numbers." To mainstream analysts, who blamed the decline of the boomers' fortunes during the '70s on their numbers (the supply of new workers was thought to be outpacing available jobs), it appeared that the baby bust would enjoy a reversal of fortune. But things haven't turned out that way. In fact, today's young adults are generally worse off than those of 1979, with pay both lower in real terms and relative to older workers*. Again contradicting the picture of upscaling, the concentration of young adults in professional and technical jobs actually declined between 1979 and 1996, and the managerial category was flat. At the same time, the share of young adults in lower-wage service jobs, and in the promising category of "handlers, equipment cleaners, helpers, and laborers" rose dramatically. |
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Web Lab |
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