While the U.S. economy has added nearly 3 million jobs since the recovery began, many who are regaining jobs after being laid off have had to settle for less pay.
Only 56 percent of Americans who lost jobs from January 2009 through December 2011 got jobs at the beginning of this year, the Labor Department said in a recent report. More than half of these workers took jobs with lower pay and about 30 percent took pay cuts of 20 percent or more.
An estimated 6.1 million people with at least three years of work experience were laid off in the three years ending in 2011, the report said. While that number is less than 6.9 million in a previous Labor Department report covering the 2007-2009 period, it’s the second-highest total since 1984.
Compared with most other recoveries, “this is really bad,” said Dean Baker, an economist and co-director of the Center for Economic Policy Research. Only 15 percent of those laid off in 2009 through 2011 have found new jobs with equal or higher pay, he said, but 25 percent did in the three years before the recession. “You were much more likely to be re-employed in 2007 at the same or higher wage than now,” he said.
An Associated Press analysis said the current economic recovery is the weakest since the Great Depression. Economic growth and consumer spending have never been weaker in a postwar recovery, AP noted. Plus, for people who have jobs, paychecks have fallen behind inflation.
The Labor Department report said men were more likely than women to regain jobs after a layoff. Male-dominated job fields like manufacturing and mining have had strong job gains. However, hiring has been below average in some occupations that employ mostly female workers, such as office and administrative support.
