Whether you're talking about
investors or workers, quality— not quantity — should determine whether
conditions are good or bad.
Have
you noticed that the Powers that Be employ a different standard for measuring
the health of America’s job market than they use for the stock market?
They’re
currently telling us that the job market is
“improving.” What do they mean?
Simply
that the economy is generating more jobs for workers. But when they talk about
the stock market “improving,”
they don’t mean that the number of stocks investors may purchase is on the
rise. Instead, they’re measuring whether assets are generally getting more
valuable and making investors richer.
And
isn’t value what really counts for workers and investors alike?
So,
it’s interesting that the recent news of job market “improvement” doesn’t
mention that of the 10 occupation categories projecting the
greatest growth in the near future, only one pays a
middle-class wage. Four pay barely above poverty level, and five pay beneath
it, including fast food workers, retail sales staff, health aides, and
janitors.
The
job expected to have the highest number of openings is “personal care aide.”
That’s the official description of the folks who assist aging baby boomers
either in their own homes or in nursing homes.
The median salary of an aide is around $20,000.
Most of them enjoy no benefits, and about 40 percent of
them must rely on food stamps and Medicaid to make ends meet.
Plus, many labor in the “shadow economy,” vulnerable to being cheated out of
those already miserly wages.
To
measure the job market by quantity — with no regard for quality — devalues our
workers themselves. Creating 200,000 new jobs doesn’t indicate economic health
if each worker needs two or three gigs to patch together a barebones living.
OtherWords columnist Jim Hightower is
a radio commentator, writer, and public speaker. He’s also editor of the
populist newsletter, The Hightower
Lowdown. OtherWords.org