Paul Krugman writes in the New York Times, "Our worst fears about the damage from long-term unemployment are being confirmed. What’s really striking is the huge number of long-term unemployed, with 4.6 million unemployed more than six months and more than three million who have been jobless for a year or more. Oh, and these numbers don’t count those who have given up looking for work. Workers who have been unemployed for a long time eventually come to be seen as unemployable, tainted goods that nobody will buy."
In another New York Times article: Part-Time Work Becomes Full-Time Wait for Better Job - Part-timers generally earn less per hour than their full-time counterparts. The senior economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research says, “The only remaining legal form of discrimination in the labor market is against part-time workers. You can hire part-time workers and full-time workers doing the same job, and you’re allowed to pay them different money and different benefits.”
The article also notes that, since the economy began to recover almost four years ago, hiring has been concentrated in relatively low-wage service sectors...nearly one out of every 13 jobs is at a restaurant, bar or other food-service establishment, a record high. (I mentioned this in another post.)
Darden Restaurants, which operates brands like Red Lobster and Olive Garden, suggested last year that they might seek to limit full-time staff to avoid activating the [ObamaCare] mandate.
From the L.A. TIMES: "The number of Americans out of work for 27 weeks or longer has declined since reaching a high of 6.7 million in April 2010. As of March, the count stood at 4.6 million, according to the latest data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Much of the decline may be attributed to long-term job seekers abandoning the labor market entirely, and therefore no longer counted among the unemployed. Long-time job seekers still represent nearly 40% of the nation’s 11.7 million unemployed. That is down only slightly from a peak of 45% in April 2010.
Job candidates who have been out of work for six months or longer are perceived as having outdated skills. As a result, they are often screened out early in the recruiting process."
To that I would like to add: 28.6 million " households" had a median income of only $19,315 a year. http://www.census.gov/...
Meanwhile, H-1B visas will expand --- even though we will need another 3.4 million more jobs this year for natural population growth.
Not to mention, the wealthy continue to do better: "The top one-tenth of 1 percent received about one-thirteenth of the nation’s income, while they received only one-fiftieth in the 1960s and 1970s."