U.S. workers have endured "a decade of flat wages," study says

More than 1,500 people stood in line at the carpenters union in New York City just for a chance to land an apprenticeship. Some of the applicants were in line a week for jobs that start at $45 an hour.

"You're not going to be a doctor or a scientist; you can't beat this blue-collar job," said one job-seeker named James. "You know, this is a great job, and that's why there's lots and lots of people here because, you know, they just don't hand out jobs like this every day."

A majority of U.S. workers have experienced a decade of flat wages, according to new research by the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute. It found the median weekly wage last year was $768. That's the same as 12 years earlier when adjusted for inflation. Over that same period, wages fell for 70 percent of workers.

Economists place much of the blame on a labor market that hasn't recovered from the Great Recession. "I've had friends that went to four years of college, did four years of college, and graduated and waited years to even get a job," Craig Carr said. Read more >>

Low-paying jobs are here to stay

Stuck in a job with lousy pay? Better get used to it. Some 28% of workers are expected to hold low-wage jobs in 2020, roughly the same percentage as in 2010, according to a study by the Economic Policy Institute.
The study defines low-paying jobs as those with wages at or below what full-time workers must earn to live above the poverty level for a family of four. In 2011, this was $23,005, or $11.06 an hour.

The economy won't support much growth in jobs with higher salaries, said Rebecca Thiess, policy analyst at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, who crunched government data to come up with these projections.
"Far too many economic pundits take for granted that the economy of the future will demand far greater skills and credentials," she wrote in a recent paper.

While all eyes are on Friday's monthly jobs report to find out how many positions were added in July, a growing number of economists are concerned with the quality of the jobs being created. Lower wage occupations grew by 3.2% over the year ending in the first quarter of 2011, according to the National Employment Law Project. This was fueled mainly by the expansion of retail salespeople, office clerks, cashiers, food prep workers and store clerks, whose median hourly wages ranged from $7.51 to $13.52. Read more >>

Gerald Celente: Tax Revolt Coming Against Fascism

Gerald Celente: "What we have now is fascism. Tax revolt coming. The government is going to increase taxes. This has nothing to do with right-wing, left-wing. When people lose everything, and they have nothing left to lose, they lose it. People are losing it. This is not a capitalistic society -- it's over. Look at the bailouts: AIG, Fannie, Freddie, Chrysler, GM, now health-care. Summed up in 6 words: Princeton, Harvard, Yale, bullets, bombs, and banks. Wall Street has hijacked Washington. We're forecasting a new third party -- not the Tea Party."