We Have Excellent Jobs With Low Salaries

Hey, did you know how hard it is to get a job? I did! Did you know that the job you're going to get after being out of work for a year is going to pay less than your last job? Duh-hey, yeah Archie, where's Veronica?

Ultimately what is great about this is that the employees at the Bureau of Labor Statistics are probably safe from being laid off since they have to measure how bad this is. How bad would things have to get for us to stop measuring how bad it was? That's an interesting question! "It's so bad, forget about it, we give up, no more statistics."

It's amazing how precisely they can identify a problem, and they have no ability to solve it. I can do that for FREE!

There are two problems with the jobs recovery to date. Employers haven't added enough jobs. And those they have added aren't particularly good ones.

The former has gotten a lot of attention. But the low-wage jobs that have been added are also a cause for concern.

"Growth has been concentrated in mid-wage and lower-wage industries. By contrast, higher-wage industries showed weak growth and even net losses," said Annette Bernhardt, policy co-director for the National Employment Law Project. She said that growth has been far more unbalanced than during previous job recoveries.

Bernhardt's analysis of the first seven months of 2010 found that 76% of jobs created were in low- to mid-wage industries -- those earning between $8.92 to $15 an hour, well below the national average hourly wage of $22.60.

But the Bureau of Labor Statistics has made some worrisome projections about the pay for jobs likely to be created.

The BLS's most recent job growth forecast, published back in November 2009 and projecting the job market from 2008 through 2018, identified 30 different occupations expected to experience the best growth.

The good news is that the occupation expected to add the most jobs over those 10 years -- registered nurse -- is considered "very high wage." But the six occupations with the largest gains are all classified as either "low wage" or "very low wage." Among those jobs are home health aides, retail sales people and food preparation -- including fast food workers.

[CNNmoney.com]