Thread: We are in a wage recession!!

I found some interesting statistics on the US Department of Labor website here: http://data.bls.gov/PDQ/servlet/SurveyO ... w=net_1mth

It lists the changes in average hourly wages from month to month, adusted for inflation. In other words, "real wages". Notice they don't have an annual total. I wonder what they don't want us to know?

Well, I added the numbers up, and for 2004 and 2005, real wages dropped 7 cents an hour both years. A 14 cent drop in hourly wages in 2 years! We are having a wage recession!
Since this is figured in 1982 dollars, it equals a 2% cut is hourly wages! By the time medical benefit cuts are figured in, it is likely much more than this.

How come the Propoganda Ministry (main stream media) never mentions this? All we ever hear is the "unemployment rate". Of course, that doesn't include people who have stopped looking for work. The real unemployment rate is twice as high.

And those traitors in the Senate want to import even more workers!! To depress wages even more?

FIRE EVERY ONE WHO DOES NOT VOTE FOR HR4437 AS IS!

I think we are in an all out Wage Depression not a Recession!

I would believe this if it wasn't for the fact that I know for a fact that the exact same, non-professional jobs that fetch a whopping $5.35 in El Paso County, TX (a severely depressed area economically) fetch $12.01 in North Carolina. I'm dying to get back and find out what kind of money other jobs fetch in other parts of the country.

Well, I work in NC and I haven't had a raise or cost of living adjustment in four years. I have a degree in engineering too, so I'm not someone without work skills. But, Mr. Bush says we have a shortage of skilled, technical workers. What he really meant, but didn't say, is that he wants more cheap technical workers.

Gotcha, WavTek.

But Ican only talk about what I know personally.

As for the technical world, my husband gets paid just about half of what he would be paid if he worked his very same job based out of New England for the exact same company.

He's an electronics engineer. Here, his company is no longer hiring or even promoting engineers. They hire people and call them technicians or wiremen who are actually expected to perform engineering functions without the pay. You are right, comanies all want cheap labor. Quite often, they hire temporary workers from Manpower and keep the ones who play golf or know which butts to kiss rather than base their decisions on skills, or so it seems.

Thirty five or forty years ago, there were engineering departments in companies all over this country where people had signs on their desks that said "Yesterday, I couldn't SPELL engineer. Today I ARE one." And that is a pretty close to true statement in a lot of cases. Popele with practical knowledge were promoted to white collar jobs and called engineers even if they didn't have any college education because companies couldn't afford for their most knowledgeable people to go on strike and "management" was forbidden to join a union. In addition, they didn't have to pay "management" overtime. So the "promotion" was a kick in the teeth as well as an honor for doing a good job.

Twenty-five or thirty years ago many of those "engineers" were told to either get or complete their degrees or face layoff. The night schools were full of them and the equivalency test was a popular test to pay to take as a means of using practical knowledge to sidestep many hours of schooling. I know some of the "engineers" who didn't heed the warning and got laid off as a result.

The young, graduating "engineers" who had no experience in the work force expected to start right off with top pay. Many did. There were conflicts between the people who knew what to do and the people who thought they knew what to do because they read it in a book. That was when I decided that all books, no matter what they are supposed to be, are fiction, including school books.

Eventually, plenty of those people who started off not knowing how to spell engineer retired and their practical knowledge was lost, leaving many companies with people who were more concerned about their paychecks than safe work practices, teamwork, or even getting the job done right. Accidents like that space shuttle mass murder we recently commemorated happened as a result of poor quality workmanship done by unqualified people doing jobs they should never have had.

Now, companies are hiring those "techs" again who might know how to do something because those people with the sheepskins who are afraid to get their hands dirty need someone to get the work out while they sit around in their offices and play solitaire on the computer.

Do I think that a technician should be paid what he or she is worth? You bet your life I do. But how do we determine how much any job is worth if the east coast and the west coast pay wages so much higher than border towns and cities in the center of the country that are over run by illegals? What exactly is a fair wage and how is it determined?

And, taking into consideration that you can buy a modest house for fifty thousand dollars every day of the week in in El Paso TX but you can't even buy a lot the size of a postage stamp for fifty thousand dollars in many areas of the country, are the people paying the low wages to blame? Or is the housing industry to blame? The grocery stores? Who?

I hate to sound so bitter over this but I've seen and heard too much over the past forty years to let it slide.

When someone is promoted beyond their ability to perform, which often happens due to the reasons you cited...ability at golf or social skills rather than job skills...that's called the Peter Principle. Did you ever read that book..it hits it all right on the head.

I quite agree with you that we have many people in positions they should not be filling b/c they do not have the education or the skills to fill those jobs. My cousin, who had two degrees in engineering, was laid off by Lone Star Steel during the intense competition for our steel industry by Japan. Japan won, of course...but my cousin was out of work for several years. He was intelligent, well educated, handsome, sociable, a football star in college...but he just wasn't needed...those degrees entitled him to a decent wage, you see.

We do have quite different wage scales in different parts of the nation...and different housing costs...different utility costs. The illegals account for the atrocious price of rental units...and probably for the sudden increase in the cost of new housing. White flight...people trying to get out of neighborhoods that are suddenly overrun by aliens...buying up...but all this is about to crash as well as these are artificially high prices for housing...plus the utility increases these last two years. I saw a family on tv that had just bought a new house last spring...they were having to sell it this fall due to the increase in utility costs. That's not something loan officers usually factor in....

When the housing market bubble bursts....watch out...we will have full blown recession all over this nation.

RR

When the pundits proclaim the wonders of how many jobs were created during a particular time period you will NEVER hear those spewers of propaganda also mention the number of legal and illegal immigrants that entered the USA seeking work during the same interval.

For many years I have yet to hear of the number of jobs created equalling the number of new job seekers crossing the border.

Additionally, you NEVER hear of the number of H1B visa holders entering per interval.

Thus, the number of job seekers regularly outpaces the number of jobs created.

However, it is unpatriotic and unAmerican to notice this or be angered by it.

Love it or leave it.

As things are is correct, proper and as it should be.

All is well. The commoners do not count. "Let them eat cake." As long as the elite class is doing well there are NO problems in the USA.

Everything is as it should be.

Perhaps you should just accept your place in society. The undocumented immigrants are willing to work at the wages they receive. They do not need benefits. They can get by on their wages.... why can't you?

Just emulate the undocumented workers doing the jobs Americans will not do. Band together in groups of 10 or more and share a small apartment. If it is good enough for those wanting a better life it is more than adequate for you.

It is the responsibility of American business to create the maximum profit while cutting costs. Whatever attains that goal is good for America. Are you a traitor or something? Maybe you should move to a Communist paradise if you are not willing to do your part as a patriotic American.

When the housing market bubble bursts....watch out...we will have full blown recession all over this nation.

There is no doubt of this RR. And I have a feeling that it is going to happen all of a sudden. The banks are going to own a whole bunch of houses so they will have something to show for their pure stupidity in giving out loans to people knowing darn well they couldn't keep up the payments on all the things people need to set up housekeeping.