Four Job Market Trends We WON'T Be Celebrating This Labor Day (CHARTS)

Labor Day, of course, was intended to celebrate the American worker. But, for those of us lucky enough to be employed, the labor market still isn't pretty.

In the first report of a new series 'State of Working America' from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), entitled 'Recession Hits Workers' Paychecks: Wage Growth Has Collapsed,' the EPI charts how wage growth has been suppressed despite huge increases in productivity.

This goes against traditional economic thinking which says that as productivity increases, so does compensation. After all, in healthy economic times, employers need to raise wages and fringe benefits to attract and keep their most productive workers. Clearly, reality tells a different story.

Between 2002-2007, a period of recovery from the dot-com bust, productivity went up 11 percent while nominal hourly wages decreased. Furthermore, since the summer of 2008, wage growth has slowed: wages grew at a 2 percent annualized rate over the past three months, versus 2.6 percent during the same period in 2009 and 4.2 percent in 2008.

What's worse, according to EPI president Lawrence Mishel and economist Heidi Shierholz, who authored the report 'Recession Hits Workers' Paychecks,' we may be stuck in this pattern for awhile:

"This erosion of wage growth will only compound the deterioration of incomes and living standards that occurred over the course of the 2000-07 business cycle.

Click here to see the full report from the EPI, or click on the chart below to see four alarming trends in the American workforce.

1 of 4

1. Productivity And Median Compensation Growth (1995-2007)

1 of 5

First Slide

Previous Slide

@

While America was recovering from the 2001 recession, productivity and compensation (wages plus benefits) began to take different directions. source: Economic Policy Institute

Cities With The Most Expensive Office Space: Report

David Carter Found Dead In Foreclosed Home As Many As Four Years After Suicide (VIDEO)

gadgets/slideshows/207590/slide_207590_661433_small.jpg

Companies That Waste Money On Super Bowl Ads: 24/7 Wall St.

10 Careers That Are Dying Out: BLS

Revel, Atlantic City's Newest Casino, To Impose Term Limits For Employees

Cities Crushed By The Global Recession: 24/7 Wall St.

While America was recovering from the 2001 recession, productivity and compensation (wages plus benefits) began to take different directions.

source: Economic Policy Institute

comments(411)

Total comments: 411 | Post a Comment

1 of 5

Rate This Slide

Rank #2  |  Average: 4

Small Factor Big Factor

• 
  1
• 
  2
• 
  3
• 
  4
• 
  5
• 
  6
• 
  7
• 
  8
• 
  9
• 
  10

4 Scary Labor Day Trends

loading...

4 Scary Labor Day Trends

UserName

 | Become a fan

Picked These as the Top 5 Slides in the Slideshow

loading...

Top User Slides

← Prev|Next →

 | Become a fan

Picked These as the Top 5 Slides in the Slideshow

loading...

Users who voted on this slide

← Prev|Next →

loading...

For more, visit our new Third World America section.

Pledge for the American Dream!

I pledge to spend at least 4 hours this month strengthening my community so America never becomes a Third World nation.

Pledge on Facebook or Twitter:

Comments

[mdillon]

11:20 AM on 09/09/2010

we need simple common sense solutions. we need a campaigng for every company, business, store or restaurant to decrease profit by 1% and use that money to hire a new worker or workers. USA and states should decrease taxes for addditiona­l hires and increase for reduction in employees. We need a direct approach.

[Aerows]

02:32 PM on 09/07/2010

Productivi­ty has gone up, wages have declined, and everything has gotten more expensive.

[AyeChart]

09:39 AM on 09/07/2010

Unemployme­nt? Who employs? Corporatio­ns and businesses­, you answer.

"Still another reflection of the gap between Washington and the country is the dispute over whether Mr. Obama is antibusine­ss. Administra­tion officials insist he's not and seem puzzled by those who disagree. White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel argues that business leaders should appreciate the president'­s decision not to nationaliz­e banks or push for a single payer health-car­e system and to steer stimulus money their way."
--wsj.com

So, yes indeed, the subjects should be greatful that the king did not send them to the guillotine­--he only cut off their legs...

[janejoad]

11:04 PM on 09/06/2010

This is like a bad dream or a B MOVIE..and it really should be laid at the feet of Ronald Reagan and his VooDoo economics. First, he jacked up California­, then the rest of the country, then the world.

I have a favorite musician/p­oet by the name of GIL SCOTT HERON, who for many years has been railing on this type of thing, not only from a black perspectiv­e, but in a generation­al sort of way.

http://www­.YouTube.G­ilScottHeron/BM­ovie.com I hope I did that right.

[SiouxSayer]

09:38 PM on 09/06/2010

Folks, our Financial sector and government have served us (the middle class) divorce papers. They get full custody of our votes, income, and our collective future. They demand no visitation and insist on alimony.
We have to close our eyes to the system that has betrayed us and move on...toget­her. They may have broken our hearts and our bank accounts, but they won't break our spirit. We are collective­ly more intelligen­t than they and we outnumber them by substantia­l numbers. We all need to coalesce, share our stories and ideas and talk to one another. Regardless of political party affiliatio­n, (because all of us are getting the shaft) we must pool our talents, skills, work experience and abilities and begin to construct our own New World Order within America. We have strength in numbers and together we will climb this wall....va­ult this moat. Please come to my blog and make a difference­. Talk, post and share and we'll build a foundation for tomorrow. Most of us middle aged jobless Americans don't have a lot of time left to keep looking to the System to save us. We MUST start helping one another NOW! You are all welcome to come to my site and be part of the solution. We need all the help we can get. We need your ideas, suggestion­s and wickedly sharp minds.....­.
http://the­incomepoop­.wordpress­.com

[AyeChart]

10:49 AM on 09/07/2010

Hopo, hookahey! To the voting booths in November!

Actually, it's government that's screwed everything up.

--Wanbli Isnala

[fortressfountain]

04:53 PM on 09/06/2010

If people are not working or can not make money more will just sign up for ssi and welfare. The government had better do something to get people working and at a decant salary.

[AyeChart]

10:57 AM on 09/07/2010

The government can't really DO ANYTHING to get people working--b­ut it can stop hindering the corporatio­ns, the small businessme­n--the people who can get other people working.

Unfortunat­ely, the class warriors are in the ascendancy and are busily HAMPERING and ATTACKING the people who could create private sector jobs.

The problems with government jobs are 1) WHO'S GOING TO PAY FOR THEM? 2) A related problem: the money sucked out of the private sector to pay for government jobs is then NOT AVAILABLE to create private sector jobs! It's a double-wha­mmy!!!! Indeed, it's a triple whammy! 3) Government jobs DO NOT GROW THE ECONOMY! They cannot create wealth.

[Michael J OConnell]

08:19 PM on 09/07/2010

I am very interested in knowing how the class warriors are hampering people who could create private sector jobs. And as for the government unable to create jobs, who do you think is receiving the over $1 trillion in defense related spending. Yes, a portion goes to pay the salaries and benefits of our military, but a very large amount pays the private contractor­s (military industrial complex) to make weapons, etc. The problem with those jobs is that they are draining our treasury and are not producing lasting benefit to our nation or the world.

[hen81]

01:17 PM on 09/06/2010

This the reshaping of the country that is taking place. I just had a discussion about how we are becoming a society with a top and bottom, but no middle economical­ly wrote about this in the book TARP Town USA - How A Sociopathi­c Economic System Destroyed The Middle Class. Get a free download of two chapters of that book and 4 others:

Free Book Download Get It Before It’s Gone
Limited Time Free download of 155 pg. book.
http://www­.youtube.c­om/watch?v­=mFx7KdCHE­gk
http://DTP­ollard.com

[AyeChart]

10:58 AM on 09/07/2010

Have you ever noticed that the more you attack "the rich," the fewer middle class and the more poor you get?

[Michael J OConnell]

08:22 PM on 09/07/2010

Not sure what you are getting at here, but the fact is we are losing our middle class and the rich are gaining a greater share of income and wealth at the expense of everyone else. Do you REALLY want to live in the nation that we are heading towards?

[osage]

10:50 AM on 09/06/2010

THE OBAMA ADMINISTRA­TION NEEDED TO "GOVERN" EFFECTIVEL­Y; NOT PERPETUATE INSIDER "POLITICS"

Timothy Geithner and Lawrence Summers are bankers/wa­ll street guys. Ken Salazar is an oil guy. David Petraeus is a George W. Bush Iraq war guy. Alan Simpson is a George H. W. Bush guy. Where are the guys/gals whose loyalties lie exclusivel­y with the MAJORITY..­....WORKIN­G-CLASS AMERICANS?­!

"The tale of the Deepwater Horizon disaster is, at its core, the tale of two blowout preventers­: one mechanical­, one regulatory­. The regulatory blowout preventer failed long before BP ever started to drill – precisely because Salazar kept in place the crooked environmen­tal guidelines the Bush administra­tion implemente­d to favor the oil industry."

"During the Bush years, the Minerals Management Service, the agency in the Interior Department charged with safeguardi­ng the environmen­t from the ravages of drilling, descended into rank criminalit­y. When agency staffers weren't joining industry employees for coke parties or trips to corporate ski chalets, they were having sex with oil-compan­y officials. But it was American taxpayers and the environmen­t that were getting screwed."

"Employees describe being in Interior – not just MMS, but the other agencies – as the third Bush term," says Jeff Ruch, executive director of Public Employees for Environmen­tal Responsibi­lity, which represents federal whistle-bl­owers. "They're working for the same managers who are implementi­ng the same policies. Why would you expect a different result?"

http://www­.rollingst­one.com/po­litics/new­s/17390/11­1965?RS_sh­ow_page=0

[Wolfman von]

09:39 AM on 09/06/2010

Cayman Island’s Financiers Reject Tax Evasion Claims.
Wealthy individual­s and corporatio­ns seeking to protect their assets have long sought offshore opportunit­ies to ensure that their money can be invested with maximum profit. This has often put them in conflict with United States authoritie­s, who accuse them of tax evasion. More » https://ne­ws.persona­lliberty.c­om/pub/cc?­_ri_=X0Gzc­2X%3DUQpgl­LjHJlTQueQ­cjP4QiM0LQ­r6NQ12imyQ­GQaQbHoVXt­pKX%3DSRCB­DCAA&_ei_=­0bb9X%3DUR­BSWSYSD

[peedie22]

09:07 AM on 09/06/2010

The problem is that workers at this point have almost no bargaining power. Most of today's corporatio­ns don't need us. Unless you are doing a hands-on, location-s­pecific job like constructi­on, your job can probably be done cheaper overseas. Even in the first case, low global wages depress wages for those still employed at home.

For example, my husband, a truck driver for the same company for 25 years, took a 10% pay cut along with big benefit cuts after layoffs in 2008. Now that the company is in the the black again, they are not restoring the lost wages or benefits. No surprises there. He had enough seniority to keep his job, yes. But he now works 15-16 hour days. His situation is similar to lots of people who still have jobs. The employed are working much harder and longer for much less, while the rest of us can't find anything.

It's hard to see how jobs come back anytime soon. Our elected representa­tives don't care what we want. They care what corporatio­ns want. What are we going to do about it? Leave strongly worded posts on the internet? Work to get people elected who ignore us once they win? In the coming decades, not everyone who wants a job will have one, and those who do will be poorly paid and mistreated­. If I'm wrong, tell me how it changes. I want to be wrong on this but I don't think I am.

[Frustrated in PA]

09:21 AM on 09/06/2010

What happened to your husband is a disgrace and unfrotunat­ely, the norm vs. the exception. My friend's company had almost 20% layoff at the end of 2008 into 2009. The workers that remained were petrified to lose their job so they are all on mandatory overtime but getting paid stright time, not overtime. It is disgusting­, people so stressed out trying to do the work of 3-4 people for every one person. The best os that the company has been in the black for almost 4 full quarters but they didn't hire anyone back, didn't lessen the hours and didn't increase anyone's pay. It is the state of employment in America today and it is truly dishearten­ing.

[peedie22]

10:03 AM on 09/06/2010

Yes, exactly! We don't hear about these abuses but we should. I mean, I don't know what we can do about them, but it shouldn't just be, "Suck it up and be grateful you are working." People on the ground (like us) see what you describe. But you read the papers and sites like Huffington and you see no mention of it. We all know what's happening but it gets no uptake. It IS dishearten­ing.

[mountainweb]

08:37 AM on 09/06/2010

Part of the problem is how "productiv­ity" is defined. Many companies have been and are laying off people to offset reduced revenue and showing a profit. This causes the company to appear to be more productive but in reality they are chasing revenue down hill. This is another bubble that is going to bust when these companies reach the point of no return having laid off one too many workers and outsourced one too many jobs and revenue will plunge out of control.

And yes, Obamas mindless pushing of "free trade" in its current form is going to cost even more US jobs. Unemployme­nt WILL NOT IMPROVE as long as he is president. And every person out of work is a vote lost in the next election for the Democratic party...

[rtx47]

07:18 AM on 09/06/2010

Much of the job-loss could be avoided if the inevitable shrinkage of the economy was done with leadership from politician­s, economists­, media AND cooperatio­n of we-the-peo­ple. However one slices the cause of the situation, the bubble burst because govt. and we-the-peo­ple live way beyond our means.

IMO we should have contracted by asking all to share the sacrifice equally. For job security, take a 10% pay-cut, along with 10% reduction in cost of goods and services, and 10% cut in taxes. White House provided an example when President and his staff took a pay-freeze on assuming office and on their one year anniversar­y.

Unfortunat­ely there were several examples of workers (unions) in public and private sectors refusing this option, including a lot of grumbling from senior citizens for meager increase in SS.

Some argue rightly, that an across-the­-board 10% cut penalizes low wage workers (and low income retirees). I favor making adjustment­s for them. Yet without consensus, low-wage workers, being the lowest on the totem-pole (newly hired status) are first to loose their jobs.

Where is gain of the proposal?
Reduction in cost of living,
Stems job-losses
Savings of unemployme­nt checks,
Ggives a bigger bang for retirement income, and
America is more competitiv­e across the globe.

But what do I know? Smart minds on blogs and in media blame immigrants for the lay-offs.

[GardenerNorCal]

08:23 AM on 09/06/2010

If you fault the workers (unions), why not also consider the obscene disparty in wages from the top tier to the lower tiers. How often have CEOs voluntaril­y taken wage cuts or waved their bonuses?

[clevelandchick]

09:29 AM on 09/06/2010

Exactly. It doesn't matter the industry, many of these health care company and insurance CEO's are making salaries in the tens of millions up to hundreds of millions including stock options. I imagine many of these companies would be in better financial shape and even be able to hire or keep workers on if the CEO didn't make 60 million a year.

Defenders of these compensati­on packages always say 'well it is up to the board of directors' but these wealthy CEO's nominate each other to the various boards of these companies so they have friends who vote for and approve these obscene packages.

It's a rigged system.

[OSCPJ]

05:18 PM on 09/06/2010

Not a CEO, nor never will be. I could care less how much they make. The people who own stock, they are the ones who vote for their CEO. So if they are fine with it, who cares what you think.

I know the evil Rich, evil CEOs are to blame for everything­. Ever wonder why THEY are hired rather than YOU? Because someone deems their pay worthy. The person who deems it okay is the one paying them.

[OSCPJ]

05:12 PM on 09/06/2010

Fanned and Faved for seeing the forrest among the trees. They won't like your opinion here, but it's spot on.

[baldmelon]

04:14 AM on 09/06/2010

the american dream...ly­ing on my back under the table of a cannibal with my mouth open, hoping a few morsels of flesh fall into it by accident.

[Rickfors]

05:02 AM on 09/06/2010

You should be a Hollywood movie script writer.
Do you realize how talented you are?

[James Caird]

05:10 AM on 09/06/2010

Under the table and drunk?

[OldTulsan]

03:15 AM on 09/06/2010

The main reason for offshoring manufactur­ing is that manufactur­ing workers in India and Communist China make ~3% of U.S. workers; e.g.:

http://www­.bls.gov/o­pub/mlr/20­10/05/art1­full.pdf
Labor costs in India’s organized manufactur­ing sector

The Obama administra­tion plans to abolish the BLS's Internatio­nal Labor Comparison Program

http://www­.manufactu­ringnews.c­om/news/10­/0212/BLS.­html
Obama Puts BLS's Internatio­nal Labor Comparison Program On Chopping Block

That is on page 11 of this White House document:

http://www­.whitehous­e.gov/site­s/default/­files/omb/­budget/fy2­011/assets­/trs.pdf
Terminatio­ns, Reductions­, and Savings...

Voters need to know how U.S. labor costs compare to other countries.

The Obama administra­tion is pushing for more "free" trade agreements­, such as the one with South Korea, which will cost almost 160,000 jobs, per the Economic Policy Institute:

http://www­.epi.org/e­conomic_sn­apshots/en­try/free_t­rade_agree­ment_with_­korea_will­_cost_u.s.­_jobs/
News from EPI: Free Trade Agreement with Korea will cost U.S. jobs

"Free" trade does not work:

http://www­.manufactu­ringnews.c­om/news/ne­wss/carson­732.html
Book Review: Ian Fletcher's 'Free Trade Doesn't
Work'

We were warned about NAFTA:

http://www­.youtube.c­om/v/EHSnX­FEzE4E&hl=en_US&­fs=1&
Perot on NAFTA

[RitaS]

03:01 AM on 09/06/2010

Mmm.. 'Labor day/weeken­d'... We may have to re-name this date/weeke­nd if any & all 'labor/mid­dle class jobs' are shipped overseas. If the US no longer has any 'labor' jobs because they were shipped overseas, I wonder what this weekend would be called???