sector, is the main driver of job growth in this sector. The largest portion of the job growth in healthcare has been seen in home healthcare services, which have grown from roughly 11,500 to almost 13,500, or by approximately 17% from March 2011 to March 2014. This points to a worrisome fact. Sectors that have grown the most are typically made up of lower paying jobs. According to the BLS, the mean hourly wage of Home Health Aides (Education and Healthcare) in the Inland Empire in May 2013 was only $11.60 an hour. The mean hourly wage of Bartenders (Leisure and Hospitality) was $10.00. Meanwhile, jobs such as Carpet Installer (one of the lowest paid jobs in Construction) or Carpenter had a mean hourly wage of $15.50 and $27.30, respectively. Taken together with the job recovery statistics, this means that people in the Inland Empire are finding new jobs that do not pay nearly as well as their old jobs did. To summarize, the current job recovery in the U.S. and in the Inland Empire is not as positive as portrayed by some in the news media. The recovery has been relatively weak and any good news therefore deserves some celebration.
While job numbers might have reached their pre-recession peak, they are nowhere near levels where we would want them to be. Furthermore, the industries that have led the job recovery can mostly be characterized as low paying jobs. This means that the Inland Empire job market can currently be seen as consisting of individuals, who have either given up looking for employment following long stretches of unemployment, or are struggling to find good jobs, namely those anywhere near their pre-recession ones. People should think twice before popping the champagne and toasting to the fact that we have finally fully recovered from previous employment losses. Better, perhaps, to keep the bubbly in the fridge for just a little longer because the Inland Empire job market will see a lift off in the near future. We believe that serious lift off, following the ignition phase, will happen as the national economy strengthens further and as we enter the true expansionary phase of the business cycle.
Martin Sartorius ’15 and Manfred Keil
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