More jobs doesn't necessarily mean more good jobs

From The Wall Street Journal on April 1:

The U.S. economy is producing jobs, that much is clear. But whether those jobs are good jobs is less certain.

Of the 230,000 private-sector jobs created in March, 199,000 of those were in the service sector. A large chunk of those jobs are in fields that are likely to provide a stable livelihood for those lucky enough to snag them –- like some of the 78,000 added in professional and business services. But that’s less certain for, say, the 37,000 new workers in the leisure and hospitality industry.

To be sure, having a job is better than not having one, both for the individual and for economic output. But this recovery seems to be going hand-in-hand with workers taking lower-paying jobs. More than half of those full-time workers who lost jobs between 2007 and 2009 and then found full-time work by early last year said their new jobs came with lower wages. Some 36% saw a pay cut of 20% or more.

That can be good news for companies, who are able to keep their labor costs low and hire talented workers, which can increase productivity. The flipside: it can downshift Americans’ spending and their standard of living.

Academics have pointed out that, as jobs are coming back, they’re returning at the highest and the lowest levels. But the middle-class is being squeezed.

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