The Stalling Obama Economy: Incomes Falling, Unemployment High, Low-paying Jobs, and Average Earnings growth anemic

The Stalling Obama Economy: Incomes Falling, Unemployment  High, Low-paying Jobs, and Average Earnings growth anemic

The economy is adding jobs, though not enough to bring down the sky-high unemployment rate. But it’s not just the quantity of jobs that’s a problem, it’s the quality, too.

– Despite the pickup in hiring, average earnings have continued to moderate and are up just 1.9 percent over the past year.

– Real after-tax per capita income, or real take-home pay, has fallen in two of the past three months and is down modestly over the past year.

Why are incomes falling in real terms? It’s because “a disproportionate share of the jobs that have been added over the past two years have been in relatively low-paying industries” such as in the retail, leisure, hospitality, temp, and home healthcare industry. Hiring in those sectors has accounted for 40.7 percent of the jobs added over the past two years. By comparison, these industries account for just 28.9 percent of the workforce. Not only is average hourly pay relatively low in these industries, but a large proportion of the jobs tend to be part-time.