A new study by the liberal National Employment Law Project (NELP) finds that 58 percent of all jobs recovered in the last two years have been in low-wage occupations, which grew 2.7 times faster than mid-wage and higher-wage jobs.
Other key findings included:
- Lower-wage occupations were 21 percent of recession losses, but 58 percent of recovery growth.
- Mid-wage occupations were 60 percent of recession losses, but only 22 percent of recovery growth.
- Higher-wage occupations were 19 percent of recession job losses, and 20 percent of recovery growth.
- Three low-wage industries have added 1.7 million jobs in the recovery and constitute 43 percent of total net growth: food services, retail, and administrative, support and waste management services (largely employment services, i.e., temp jobs).
The study examined employment trends in 366 occupations using the government’s wage and job survey, known as the Current Population Survey (CPS).
“In short,” concludes the report, “America’s good jobs deficit continues.”