wages

CEPR: People Living Below the Income Poverty Line Today are Better Educated than Ever

/ The Old Crank

Last April,  the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) published Low Wage Workers Are Older and Better Educated than Ever, an issue brief showing that the average low-wage worker today is both older and much better educated than the average low-wage worker was in the past.

Yesterday, Shawn Fremstad noted on CEPR’s blog that, in addition, the number of middle-aged workers living below the poverty line with at least some college or a Bachelor’s Degree has nearly doubled between 1979 and 2010. In addition, the number of middle-aged workers living below the poverty line without a high school diploma has dropped by nearly 50% during that same period. Fremstad looks at this data nd concludes:

Increasing educational attainment by itself is not at all sufficient to reduce inequality and income poverty — we need stronger labor market institutions, particularly ones that increase workers bargaining power to address these issues.

Quote of the Day

/ The Old Crank

“[E]very way you cut it — by race or gender, with or without a college degree — young people are just not getting the job opportunities they need, and it will have a lasting impact on their careers,” said Heidi Shierholz, an economist who studies the labor market at the Economic Policy Institute in Washington. (my emphasis)

The quote comes from a story in the New York Times a couple of groups that are working on this issue: the Campaign for Young America and Fix Young America.

Australia Looks to Import Skilled Workers from U.S. to Fill Vacancies in Skilled Labor

/ The Old Crank

According to the The Information Daily, Australia believes there are enough skilled workers in the U.S. to fill vacancies in their booming mining and gas industries:

Chris Evans, minister for Skills, Science and Research, expects the demand for skilled construction workers to peak over the next three to five years and said his government was looking towards the US to fill the gaps.

To do that, Australia is considering a change to their immigration policy which will enable U.S. workers in licensed occupations, such as electricians and plumbers, to have their skills assessed before they arrive for work in Australia. Under the current system, these workers are required to have their skills assessed when they arrive—a process that often takes several months.

The Daily adds, “[t]he announcement will come as a welcome relief to the US, with high unemployment rates at 8.3% despite some recent improvements.”

American industries report that they are unable to find skilled workers to fill vacancies for skilled labor here in the U.S., yet Australian government officials are so confident that skilled labor is abundant here that they are adopting policies to encourage those workers to emigrate half-way around the world for a job.

Economic Growth as Spectator Sport

/ The Old Crank

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan appeared at a forum on education at American University here in Washington last Friday, and, according to news reports, told the audience that, “[a]s a country we’re going to educate our way to a better economy or we’re going to struggle.” Sec. Duncan uses this line—or variation of it—a lot. (He used it during his appearance on The Daily Show a couple of weeks ago, for example.)

But if a “better” economy is one in which lower and middle class incomes are rising, then we may have additional work to do. From a post by Jared Bernstein on his blog today:

All of the factors driving up inequality remain in place, most notably, high unemployment, and we know from profits data (way up), corporate balance sheets (way flush), and real paychecks of middle-class workers (way flat), that what growth has occurred hasn’t reached much below the top end.

If this expansion is to be one where growth is more than a spectator sport for average folks, we’ve got some serious policy work to do.

In other words, if this is how our economic recovery is playing out, will improving education and increasing the skills of our workforce—while undeniably good policy goals—be enough to move low and middle class wages in the right direction?