For no particular reason I visited the Bureau of Labor statistics today to see what I could see. And let me tel you, after I read the news today, oh boy was I not thrilled at all the holes I found in our economy, or to be more specific, the Labor sector of our economy.
Napoleon once disparagingly remarked of the English that they were “a nation of shopkeepers” (though he may have borrowed the phrase from Adam Smith). Well, the mighty United States of America is well on it’s way to becoming a nation of clerks and government employees (though as to the latter maybe not for long). From the August 3, 2010 web page of the BLS:
Retail salespersons and cashiers were the two largest occupations in the private sector in May 2009. Postal service mail carriers; correctional officers and jailers; and elementary school teachers, except special education, had the highest employment among all occupations in Federal, State, and local government, respectively. […]
Retail salespersons and cashiers had employment levels of 4.2 and 3.4 million, respectively; these two occupations combined represented almost 7 percent of total employment in the private sector. The third largest private sector occupation, combined food preparation and serving workers, with employment of 2.5 million, accounted for slightly more than 2 percent of total employment in the private sector.
I bolded that section of the BLS report to highlight this, to me disturbing trend. Nine percent of employed Americans work selling us stuff, scanning our merchandise and handing us our receipts, or they work at restaurants, cafeterias, cafes, your local Starbucks (or its equivalent) or fast food joints. By the way, office clerks made up another 2,239,540 jobs in the private sector, or roughly another 2% of the US work force in May 2009.
By the way, office clerks made up another 2,239,540 jobs, or roughly another 2% of the US work force in May 2009.
But what about the government sector? Well here’s what it looked like in May of 2009 [Note: members of the US military are not counted or I am sure they would comprise the bulk of Federal employees by a large margin]:
(cont.)
The largest occupations in Federal Government included the following: Postal service mail carriers (with employment of 339,030); all other business operations specialists (170,450); postal service mail sorters, processors, and processing machine operators (162,860); and compliance officers, except agriculture, construction, health and safety, and transportation (99,570). Four occupations specific to the U.S. Postal Service accounted for 23 percent of federal employment. […]
Employment in local government was concentrated in teaching occupations. Three of the largest–elementary, middle, and secondary school teachers, except special education–with employment totaling 3.0 million, accounted for 20 percent of local government employment. Other large occupations were protective service occupations such as police and sheriff’s patrol officers (556,420).
So Postal Workers (at the Federal level) and teachers (at the state level) are the largest groups of workers employed by government. Guess who likes to cut funding for education? Guess who wants to abolish the US Postal Service?
By the way, here’s the BLS chart for those who like their information presented in a visual format:
Here’s a link to the list for all occupations with over 700,000 employees. Let me provide the numbers for you (I’m sorry but I can’t just reproduce the image from the BLS page):
Retail Salespersons
4,209,500 3.2%Cashiers
3,439,380 2.6%Office Clerks, General
2,815,240 2.2%Combined Food Preparation and Serving Workers, Including Fast Food
2,695,740 2.1%Registered Nurses
2,583,770 2.0%Waiters and Waitresses
2,302,070 1.8%Customer Service Representatives
2,195,860 1.7%Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand
2,135,790 1.6%Janitors and Cleaners, Except Maids and Housekeeping Cleaners
2,090,400 1.6%Stock Clerks and Order Fillers
1,864,410 1.4%Secretaries, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive
1,797,670 1.4%Bookkeeping, Accounting, and Auditing Clerks
1,757,870 1.3%
General and Operations Managers
1,689,680 1.3%Truck Drivers, Heavy and Tractor-Trailer
1,550,930 1.2%Elementary School Teachers, Except Special Education
1,544,300 1.2%
Totals:
32,808,200 26.6%
Of all those occupations only one, General and Operations Managers had a average annual income that exceeded $100,000. Only two others had a average annual income that exceeded $50,000: Registered Nurses and Elementary School Teachers. And we all know how well those occupations are faring these days what with cutbacks to services. The rest all had average annual incomes in the $18,000 to $40,000 range.
All together these mostly low paying jobs make up over 26% of all the jobs in our economy (again, not counting the 1,421,668 active duty US military members). What’s striking is that not one of these occupations is in manufacturing. The largest number of employees in America are all in service related occupations. Or they work for the government.
Total Federal Government Civilian Employees:
2,768,886 (12/09)Total Federal Government Military Service Members:
1,421,668 (12/09)Total Combined Federal Employees: 4,190,544
Total State employees according to the Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey (CPS), in 2009 was roughly another 6 Million. That makes at a minimum the US workforce has approximately 40 Million people in the who have service related jobs. I say at a minimum since service related jobs in the private sector that employ less than 700,000 people are not included in that total.
That’s an astounding number. None of the major occupations in America include production workers, i.e., people who actually manufacture goods as opposed to providing services. In 2002, less than one tenth of the 131 million jobs in America were manufacturing jobs. And that was before the full force of the Bush era had hit, a period in which the outsourcing of US manufacturing jobs overseas accelerated.
Now, admittedly these statistics are slightly more than a year old, but they are the most recent ones which the BLS has analyzed regarding the makeup of “where the jobs are” in our economy. I suspect they probably are an accurate barometer of the jobs we are producing in America these days and that they haven’t changed that much over the last with the exception that government employees may no longer be ranked so high thanks to the massive layoffs in that sector due to states and municipalities running record deficits:
Wells Fargo economist Mark Vitner expects state and local governments to cut about 200,000 workers this year if Medicaid benefits aren’t extended.
Job losses, which if they occur, we can lay at the feet of the Republicans in the Senate I might add:
Meanwhile, federal aid is shrinking. Money for states from the economic stimulus is expected to fall by $55 billion, says the National Governors Association. And the Senate last week failed to pass a measure to provide states $16 billion for extra Medicaid funding, an initiative that would have extended benefits from last year’s stimulus. The House approved $25 billion in enhanced Medicaid funding.
That was in early July. But the Republicans in the Senate haven’t changed their minds in August despite pleas from their Democratic colleagues and Governors of many, many states.
Luckily two “rogue Republicans” (Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins?) changed their minds and voted to break a republican filibuster and extend 26 Billion of these benefits to the states (though not after extracting their pound of flesh):
WASHINGTON — A package of federal aid to states that would partially plug a hole in Pennsylvania’s budget and prevent thousands of layoffs passed its most difficult hurdle this morning by clearing a Senate cloture vote.
The 61-38 tally barely topped the 60-vote threshold to break a Republican filibuster, with Maine Republicans Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe joining a united Democratic caucus to back the $26.1 billion package of Medicaid reimbursements and education funding. […]
The FMAP funding had been beaten back in various forms by deficit-weary Republicans and centrist Democrats, but Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., crafted a package this week that offset the spending with cuts in other areas and a tax increase on multinational corporations. The bill would, in fact, reduce the deficit by $1.4 billion over the next decade according to the Congressional Budget Office.
Still, during floor debate this morning, Republicans attacked the measure as a bailout to states and payoff to teachers’ unions.
“States are becoming completely dependent on us,” said Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. “I would ask my friends: When will it end?”
Snowe and Collins helped break the filibuster (though the rest of the Republicans held firm, willing to see even further job losses in order to help their campaigns this Fall). But that aid package to the States is at best merely a stop gap measure to preserve state and local government jobs. What we need is a plan to bring manufacturing jobs back to America. Because the jobs that have replaced them are not, for the most part well paying jobs.
I don’t want my kids graduating from College and having to move overseas to find good jobs, but that’s the way way are headed. And all the tax cuts in the world (as Bush and Arizona proved) is not a plan for bringing those jobs back.
So Democrats, we know what the GOP plan is: help the rich get richer and divide and distract the rest of us with the politics of racism. What is the Democratic plan? Whatever it is I don’t see it being promoted. The attack ads against the Republicans are fine and dandy, but in the end Democrats need to provide an easily explainable plan to increase jobs in America.
One that we can turn into campaign slogans and sound bytes. One that is active, investing in infrastructure and not passive like tax credits or more breaks for businesses who simply continue to send jobs elsewhere. A plan that calls for action. In short, we need a New, New Deal and leaders willing to market it to the American people.
Bailing out GM was all good and dandy, but that was small potatoes. We need programs and policies that create jobs, not just save a few (no offense to the GM workers).
If we don’t we’re headed the way of all Empires that overextended themselves. Do we really want more than a half century of misery and economic stagnation like the British endured after WWI? Or worse, a nation torn apart by racial and ethnic division in which the spectre of a “strong man” arises to end the political gridlock and corruption?
I sincerely hope not.
