I have a hard time getting excited about all the jobs “created”… I already ranted about the fake census jobs.
Here’s another example. From my local news station, in their article Where the Jobs Are, Part 2:
Goldman Sachs & Co. is in the middle of a dramatic expansion in the Salt Lake City market. Two years ago, Goldman boasted 350 employees locally. By the end of the year there will be more than 1,150.
That’s great news, right? A mid-sized city like Salt Lake getting about 800 new jobs? HOW EXCITING!
And my heavens, these are jobs at Goldman Sachs!!! How freaking awesome.
I’m going to put my resume in right away. They have saved my family (hallelujah!), they have saved our town (hallelujah!)… unemployment in Salt Lake is going to shoot way down (hallelujah!)!
But waaaaaait…..
What I’m hearing (and maybe I’m wrong) is that most, the grand majority, of these new jobs are (wait for it….) ENTRY LEVEL.
Now I’m not here to bash on entry level jobs…. but how come no one is saying that none of these jobs will actually be enough to pay a mortgage and my utilities and other bills associated with my family?
Tell me about job creation at the $60k-and-up level and then we’re talking.
I have a hard time getting excited about lots of jobs at $13 or $16 or even $22 an hour range… the jobs we’ve lost are in higher than that. That’s the income we need to “replace.”
This economy is unfortunately far from getting better no matter what you hear from the media. Like you said the jobs that they do report about are few and far between.
Actually me beef isn’t with the few-and-far between, but the reports about jobs that are supposed to be exciting but have entry-level wages.
In Central Wisconsin, going wages for even manufacturing jobs are starting in many cases below $10/hour. I would guess the cost of living is higher in Salt Lake City but your $13, $16, and $22 would be heralded here with trumpets. Some manufacturing companies were paying much more but now those have laid off large numbers and even lower paying companies have laid off 300+ employees in one fell swoop. It will take much to reach the $60K at that rate.
Jason, we’ve been tracking whether companies are adding, eliminating, freezing or replacing executive-level positions for the last 18 months and have seen slow, steady growth this year: https://t.co/OjQeMQY
Jason,
Do you suppose entry-level jobs could lead to higher paying jobs in the future?
Even if these entry-level jobs are admin. support, call center, or customer services positions, any person with ambition and motivation to manage their career can take courses or find other ways to make themselves desirable candidates for higher-level positions down the road…or so I would think possible.
Secondly, in this age of the two-job/wage earner family, the entry level wages may be just what some or many families/couples need to move beyond living paycheck to paycheck.
Kathy
The job market is like demolishing a building: It’s a lot quicker and easier to tear it down than it is to build it back up. Employers have learned to make do with the reduced staffing currently in place. The thought of adding new employees, especially at higher salary levels, gets harder and harder to justify with every month that passes, especially when the company seems to be operating “just fine” without additional staffing.