Econintersect: What happens when a Federal Reserve Governor goes to a jobs fair? Sarah Bloom Raskin did just that and told her story as part of a presentation at The Roosevelt Institute Institute conference last week: A Bold Approach to the Jobs Emergency. Based on her experience at the jobs fair she was motivated to look at some specific data on jobs and has some very specific data points that are not often mentioned by others.
Some details of the data and a video of the presentation available after the Read more >> jump.
Raskin covered many of the well known and oft repeated numbers associated with the current state of employment. But when she attended a jobs fair and looked at the array of jobs available she went back to her office and dug out some data that is not as well known. What motivated her was the predominance of low pay and temporary jobs offered.
She said she found numbers that bear on the observation that America is experiencing the hollowing out of the middle class as a resulof the Great Financial Crisis (GFC). Here are two specific comparisons:
Middle pay jobs (presumably near the median personal income level):
- 2/3 of job losses
- less than 1/4 of job gains
Low wage jobs:
- 1/8 of job losses
- More than 1/2 of job gains
In the following video, Raskin’s remarks start at 3:28 and end at 16:30.
