ECONOMY - Jobs Up, Wages Stagnant

"Job gains continue, so why are wages stubbornly stagnant?" PBS NewsHour 3/6/2015

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  February’s labor report came in with stronger growth than expected, with 295,000 jobs added last month and the lowest unemployment rate since the 2008 financial crisis.  But wage growth continues to lag, with hourly earning rising just one tenth of a percent.  Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez analyzes the numbers with Judy Woodruff.

JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour):  The February jobs report came in stronger than expected, with more than 200,000 jobs a month being added for the past year, the best pace since 1995.  The unemployment rate has fallen to its lowest point since the financial crisis of 2008.

Still, it has not translated at some levels.  Wage growth remains sluggish.  Hourly earnings were up just a 10th-of-a-percent last month.  And the civilian labor force, people who are working or actively looking for work, shrank in February.

Thomas Perez is the U.S. secretary of labor, and he joins us now.

Welcome to the program.

THOMAS PEREZ, Secretary of Labor:  It’s always a pleasure to be with you.

JUDY WOODRUFF:  So, break these numbers down for us.  Who is creating these jobs?  Who’s getting them?

THOMAS PEREZ:  Sure.

Well, as you correctly said, this is the best 12-month period we have had in decades.  We haven’t seen 200,000 or more jobs for 12 months in a row literally in decades.  And the nice thing about this report and the nice thing about this about what we have seen over the last year, Judy, is it is broad-based growth.

The biggest job creator is business and professional services.  Those are well-paying jobs and consultants, accountants, things of that nature.  Then we have health care, which has really been recession-proof.  Construction is doing very well.  The average person in manufacturing is working 42 hours a week.

So, not only are the quantity of jobs increasing, but the quality of jobs over the last year has been much better.

Another Excerpt:

THOMAS PEREZ:  Well, the issue of real wage growth is one of the most important pieces of unfinished business from the great recession.

I mean, our — we have a wind at our back, but what we have to do — and the difference between now and the late ’90s was that the growth we saw in the late ’90s resulted in greater shared prosperity.  The rising tide lifted more boats.  And what we have to do now is make sure that our tailwind results in shared prosperity.

Republican actions show they want to lift MORE yachts, and to hell with our rowboats.