Sunday, November 10, 2013

The Hollowing Out of America's Middle Class


Click to enlarge.

As seen in the chart above, retail trade, leisure, and hospitality production and nonsupervisory employment has been growing faster than employment overall. This is clearly not a recent development.


Click to enlarge.

Not only do these jobs not pay well, but in inflation adjusted terms they pay roughly one-third less than they did in the early 1970s.

The future's so bright I gotta wear lampshades.

Source Data:
BLS: Employment
St. Louis Fed: CPI
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4 comments:

  1. JazzbumpaNovember 10, 2013 at 6:15 PM

    Very interesting.

    And very sad.

    JzB

    ReplyDelete
  2. Stagflationary MarkNovember 10, 2013 at 6:19 PM

    Jazzbumpa,

    Sad indeed. :(

    ReplyDelete
  3. deariemeNovember 11, 2013 at 4:27 AM

    The American workforce has to compete with the workforces elsewhere (e.g. China) while being impeded by a growing Sargasso Sea of regulation.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Stagflationary MarkNovember 11, 2013 at 8:43 PM

    dearieme,

    But... but... the future's so bright!

    Sigh.

    ReplyDelete