New jobs are higher-paying
New evidence from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that the growth in high-wage jobs has been quite healthy. Some economists and some politicians claim that new jobs created in the last year are mainly lower-paying jobs. The median pay for U.S. workers, ranked by occupation and industry group, is $559 a week. Of that number, 408,000 jobs were created from July 2003 to June 2004. At the same time, there were 744,000 higher-paying jobs created.
The bureau divides all workers into 11 occupations, then assigns every job to one of 14 industries, meaning that the workforce can be sliced into a total of 154 groups. Managers in some categories have higher salaries than managers in others. And average pay in some parts of the country is higher than in others.
According to a Business Week analysis, 48 percent of new hires earned a median pay of $559 per week. Many more workers were hired for higher-paying jobs. The long-run outlook for real wages is positive for a reason economists and politicians can’t take credit for: increased productivity.
