Radical changes buffet U.S. workforce
“JOBS, JOBS, JOBS!” The exclamation was part of President Trump’s tweets last month, hammering home a promise that helped get him elected.
But the unemployment rate is (and was before the election) between 4 and 5%, which many economists consider full employment. The U.S. had a record 75 straight months of job growth under President Obama. The poverty rate has decreased from 19% in 1964 to 13.5% in 2015, according to the Census Bureau.
So why do American workers feel worse off ? Why does lamenting the state of work seem right?
In the last half century, economic, political and social changes have altered not only the makeup of the workforce, but also what it takes to get a job and support oneself, let alone a family.
“What’s changed? Everything ’s changed,” said Alice Kessler-Harris, a Columbia University professor who focuses on gender and labor history. Once dominant industries, like manufacturing — which paid well even without a college degree — have been overtaken by service sector jobs, most of which are low-paying, according to
the Bureau of Labor Statistics. At the same time, knowledgebased jobs, which exclude lower-skilled workers, are continuing to grow.
“The boundaries of who’s legally and culturally considered a worker are redrawn persistently,” said Jennifer Klein, a Yale University history profes
sor and author of Caring for America: Home Health Workers in the Shadow of the Welfare State.
The cost of getting a college degree is up more than 1,000% since 1978, according to Bloomberg. Millennials are saddled with more student loan debt and, despite being more educated, earned 20% less in 2013 than Boomers did at their age in 1989, adjusted for inflation.
Decades of stagnant wages mean both parents must often work to make ends meet, creating a need for child care and elder care that didn’t exist in 1950, for example, when two-thirds of women were fulltime “homemakers,” aka caregivers, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Women now make up nearly half of the U.S. workforce, but are paid less than men on average in the same jobs, according to the non-profit Institute for Women’s Policy Research.
The power of unions has waned, which some research suggests has contributed to lower pay for non-union workers, too, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
The gig economy (Uber, Airbnb) has exploded, giving workers more control and flexibility, but fewer benefits or legal protections.
The nation’s work structure doesn’t work with many realities of American life.
Americans fear that demands of work mean they don’t spend enough time bonding with their children, connecting with their spouses or caring for themselves. Many workers are emotionally and fi- nancially drained from juggling the health costs of aging parents and childcare needs of growing families. Americans are constantly arranging and rearranging the puzzle pieces of work, family and (if they’re lucky) leisure that never seem to fit quite right.
“You end up with this perfect storm where workplace and public policies are mismatched to what the workforce and families need,” said Vicki Shabo, vice president at the non-partisan National Partnership for Women & Families (NPWF).
More than 60% of Americans say they’ve either taken or are very likely to take time off from work for family or medical reasons, Pew Research Center reported in March. However, fewer than 40% of workers qualify for the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA), according to the NPWF, and those that do are guaranteed 12 weeks of unpaid leave — far less than workers in other industrialized nations.
Bills on both sides of the aisle have been introduced to address the need for paid leave. The GOP-backed Strong Families Act, first introduced in 2014, was reintroduced by Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., in February.
The bill would provide tax credits to encourage companies to offer employees at least two weeks of paid leave per year. Employers would receive a tax credit equal to 25% of what they pay employees during their leave.
The Democrats’ plan, reintroduced in February by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., and Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Colo., is The FAMILY Act, which would create a national fund to provide workers with two thirds of their income for up to 12 weeks, no matter where they live or work. The Democrats’ proposal would be funded by employee and employer payroll contributions, averaging less than $1.50 per week for a typical worker.