I would have found this article at The Economist funnier if it weren’t so tragic. The gist of it is that workers are ingrates and should be satisfied with what they’re getting, damamit:
Everyone says work is miserable. Today’s workers, if they are lucky enough to escape the gig economy and have a real job, have lost control over their lives. They are underpaid and exploited by unscrupulous bosses. And they face a precarious future, as machines threaten to make them unemployable.
There is just one problem with this bleak picture: it is at odds with reality. As we report this week (see Briefing), most of the rich world is enjoying a jobs boom of unprecedented scope. Not only is work plentiful, but it is also, on average, getting better. Capitalism is improving workers’ lot faster than it has in years, as tight labour markets enhance their bargaining power. The zeitgeist has lost touch with the data.
In America the unemployment rate is only 3.6%, the lowest in half a century. Less appreciated is the abundance of jobs across most of the rich world.
I’ll restrict my comments to the United States. I don’t know enough about England or Germany or Japan to comment on their situations. I’ll leave that to an English, German, or Japanese blogger.
It is not difficult to discern the reasons for the dissatisfaction if you’re willing to look for it. You need go no farther than the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Situation report:
Professional and business services added 76,000 jobs in April. Within the industry, employment gains occurred in administrative and support services (+53,000) and in computer systems design and related services (+14,000). Over the past 12 months, professional and business services has added 535,000 jobs.
In April, construction employment rose by 33,000, with gains in nonresidential specialty trade contractors (+22,000) and in heavy and civil engineering construction (+10,000). Construction has added 256,000 jobs over the past 12 months.
Employment in health care grew by 27,000 in April and 404,000 over the past 12 months. In April, job growth occurred in ambulatory health care services (+17,000), hospitals (+8,000), and community care facilities for the elderly (+7,000).
If we turn to the BLS’s definition of “administrative and support services”, two-thirds of the gains in that segment, are mostly janitors, laborers, and groundskeeping workers. The average hourly wage in the segment provides a lower than median annual income.
Month after month over the period of the last decade the health care sector has accounted for substantial growth in employment but that doesn’t mean that the number of physicians, physician’s assistants, registered nurses, and top-level technicians has been exploding. The jobs being added are overwhelmingly at the low end—PNs, home health care workers, and so on, jobs that typically pay at or near minimum wage.
There is fierce competition for all of those low-skill, low-wage jobs, driven by legal and illegal immigration, and that keeps the wages down.
When you take a view from an altitude lower than the 50,000 feet The Economist is cruising at, the situation doesn’t look nearly as rosy.
