The Employment Market is Lousy for Those Who Lost Their Jobs ... So are Wages for Those Lucky Enough to be Rehired

The recession was severe. The recovery isn't much better.

In fact, for those who lost their jobs during the recession, not much has changed. If they are fortunate enough to find new jobs, they often don't come anywhere close to replacing the income they had earned previously.

New Jobs Come With Lower Wages has the story:

"During the recession, people who lost long-held jobs struggled to find new employment and often took substantial pay cuts if they did find new work. Little appears to have changed after the recession ended, a new Labor Department report shows.

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From 2009 to 2011, 6.1 million workers lost jobs they had held for at least three years. Just over half — 56% — of them were reemployed by this January, the department found in its latest survey of displaced workers. Two years ago, the survey found that 49% of people who lost such jobs from 2007 to 2009 were reemployed.

People lucky enough to find new work are often taking steep wage cuts. Of the displaced workers who lost full-time wage and salary jobs from 2009-2011 and were reemployed by January, just 46% were earning as much or more than they did in their lost job. A third of them reported earnings losses of 20% or more. Both figures are almost identical to those from the prior report. (See our article from last year about these workers: “Downturn’s Ugly Trademark: Steep, Lasting Drop in Wages”)

Summing Up

The economy has been sick for several years now and shows no sign of healing anytime soon.

Yet government shows no sign of trying anything new, such as getting out of the way of the private sector.

All we hear is how much worse things would have been but for the action taken by government the past few years. Are they kidding?

Ideologically and intellectually, Keynesianism is a failed policy.

So are big government deficits and unpaid for entitlement programs.

Yet we're asked to agree to more of the same.

We the People deserve better, but only if we demand better.

Bigger government won't create more good jobs for the long term; it will only destroy them.

Thanks. Bob.