Where the Jobs Are: A First Look at Private Industry Job Growth and Wages in 2010

“[This brief used] a unique synthesis of Bureau of Labor Statistics data to track private industry employment and wages from December 2007 (the start of the recession) through July 2010 (the most recent month of data available).” From January 2010 to July 2010, the private sector saw a net gain of 630,000 jobs, which gave the study team “the opportunity to take a first look at where the jobs were growing, and what types of opportunities they were providing to America’s workers—job seekers, new labor market entrants, and current job holders” (p.1). (Abstractor: Author and Website Staff)

• “To date, net job growth in 2010 has not been distributed evenly across the economy. Growth has been concentrated in mid-wage and lower-wage industries. By contrast, higher-wage industries showed weak growth and even net losses” (p.1). • “[There is] a striking imbalance between the jobs that were lost and the jobs that are growing. Net job losses in 2008–2009 were widely distributed and included significant losses in higher-wage industries; by contrast, net job growth in 2010 has been driven disproportionately by industries with median wages below $15.00 a hour” (p.1). • “Common occupations in growth industries include many front-line, non-college degree jobs that often pay low wages and annual earnings. Among industries that grew in 2010, the top three occupations are retail sales persons, cashiers, and food preparation workers; combined, these three occupations numbered almost 10 million jobs in July 2010, with median wages below $10 an hour” (p.1). • “The analyses presented in this data…reiterate the continuing crisis of weak job growth, one that is stalling economic recovery in communities across the country” (p.5). • "[By] combining data on employment with data on wages at the industry level, [the authors] documented a second trend that could be equally challenging to hopes for a broadly shared recovery: the disproportionate growth in mid- and especially lower-wage industries on the one hand, and the weak growth and even continued losses in higher-wage industries on the other” (p.5). (Abstractor: Author)

• Last Updated:
• Created:
• Resource Publication Date: 2010
• Author(s): No individual author identified.
• Organizational Author(s): National Employment Law Project (NELP)
• Funding Source: Funding source not identified
• Resource Availability: Publicly available
• Posted by: Wesley Peterson
• Posted in: Workforce System Strategies