McJob McWage McDeflation

The other big deflationary pressure besides the drop in home prices is the job market:  people are getting fired, jobs are getting eliminated, but the growth industries in the country right now are McJobs that pay under $10 an hour.

While the job market may still look grim for those looking to replace their good-paying office or manufacturing jobs, opportunities are expected to abound for a host of jobs paying less than $10 an hour, everything from cashiers to home care aides.

“If you look at the job growth distribution of the last two recoveries, it suggests we’re going to see growth of a lot more lower-income jobs,” said Peter Creticos, president and executive director for the Institute for Work and the Economy. He said that the lowest net growth was among middle-income jobs, such as manufacturing or office jobs, in the prior two recoveries. It remains to be seen what will happen with this recovery, he added, but “there is no indication this recovery will be any different.”

Low-wage jobs have always been part of the economic landscape, but wages have been suppressed for many years now. Part of the reason is supply and demand, Creticos said, as the huge baby boomer labor pool flooded the job market and, thanks to the bad economy, are working longer, many past retirement age.

Creticos calls this phenomenon the “down-waging” of American jobs.

Many of the lowest-paying jobs were once seen as the domain of younger workers who were first starting out in the work world, but increasingly these positions are survival jobs for midcareer folks who have been downsized, said Randall Hansen, a workplace expert with Quintessential Careers. 

Fast food workers, dishwashers, theater ushers, amusement park attendants, waiters and waitresses, and increasingly home care aides for the elderly...that's where the jobs are now, jobs that maybe pay $18-$20k a year, the kind of work you ask teenagers to do...except for the fact that working Americans with families are having to take these jobs, and the teenagers and other entry level workers have nowhere to turn to right now.

And wages for average Americans go down, down, down along with our economy as high end jobs vanish and are replaced by McJobs with little to no prospect of advancement, jobs that basically suck.

More and more Americans are now turning to these jobs not as short term stops, but long-term careers.  You don't build a middle class on waiting tables and flipping burgers, folks.  But you can sure lose one that way.