We need Jobs not Austerity
Posted on August 3rd, 2011 | by A Worker |We need jobs with a living wage and the 6 hour work day not austerity. Here’s a good piece that points out why.
With all the focus on the drama surrounding the debt ceiling, and the much-too-late focus on the economic pain the final deal’s austerity agenda will inflict, items that really matter—jobs, jobs, and jobs–have been all but ignored.
But a new report by the National Employment Law Project looking at the jobs created since the recession officially ended brings the focus sharply back to jobs, and its findings are frightening: 73 percent of the jobs created since the supposed economic recovery began have been in low-wage fields, where workers make between $7.51 (the national minimum wage) and $13.52 an hour ($15,621 to $28,122 a year for full-time).
In contrast, 60 percent of the layoffs from the Great Recession were in what the report calls midwage occupations, those that make between $28,142 and $42,973 per year. Â Â Read the rest here
