May 2012___________________________________
Labor line has job news and commentary with a one stop short cut for America's job markets and job related data including the latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
This month's job and employment summary data are below. This month's inflation data is below.
The Establishment Job Report and Establishment Job Details for data released May 4, 2012.
American Job Market The Chronicle
Current Job and Employment Data
Jobs
Total Non-Farm Establishment Jobs up 115,000 to 132,989,000
Total Private Jobs up 130,000 to 111,020,000
Total Government Employment down 15,000 to 21,969,000
Employment Note
Civilian Non-Institutional Population up 180,000 to 242,784,000
Civilian Labor Force down 342,000 to 154,365,000
Employed down 169,000 to 141,865,000
Employed Men down 113,000 to 75,256,000
Employed Women down 56,000 to 66,609,000
Unemployed down 173,000 to 12,500,000
Not in the Labor Force up 522,000 to 88,419,000
Unemployment Rate was down .1 at 8.1%, or 12,500/154,365
Labor Force Participation Rate down .2 to 63.6%, or 154,365 /242,784
Prices and inflation measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for all Urban Consumers was down 1.69 percent for 2010.
The May CPI report for the 12 months ending with April 2012, shows the
CPI for All Items was up 2.3%
CPI for Food and Beverages was up 3.0%
CPI for Housing was up 1.7%
CPI for Apparel was up 5.1%
CPI for Transportation including gasoline was up 2.9%
CPI for Medical Care was up 3.4%
CPI for Recreation was up 1.1%
CPI for Education was up 4.3%
CPI for Communication was down .2%
This Month's Establishment Jobs Press Report
HOLDING ON
The Bureau of Labor Statistics published its May report of jobs in April. The labor force dropped by 342 thousand, a bigger drop than last month. Again this month the decrease resulted from a decline in both the employed and the unemployed. The employed dropped 169 thousand; the unemployed dropped 173 thousand. The decrease in the employed was small enough relative to the decrease in the labor force that the unemployment rate, or the unemployed divided by the labor force, went down .1 percent to 8.1 percent for April. The labor force participation rate continued in decline; dropping .2 percent to 63.6 percent.
The seasonally adjusted total of jobs at establishments was up 115 thousand for April. Goods production jobs were up 14 thousand with 116 thousand more private service-providing jobs, a little more increase than last month. Government jobs declined 15 thousand, as usual lately.
April manufacturing had the only increase in goods production with 16 thousand new jobs. Goods production was up a net of 14 thousand jobs because construction was down again, this month by 2 thousand jobs. Natural resources had no gain or loss for April.
Service-providing sectors were up a net of 101 thousand jobs because of the loss of 15 thousand government jobs. Federal Government jobs were down 4 thousand, although not from the Postal Service, which had a small and unusual gain. State government picked up a thousand jobs but local government was the big loser among government jobs, down 12 thousand. The decrease was primarily due to a loss of 10.7 thousand public primary and secondary education jobs. Private education was up 4.3 thousand jobs, more than last month, but educational services dropped a net of 11 thousand jobs due to losses in public education.
Professional and business services were the big gainer for April picking up 62 thousand jobs, around double from last month. Professional and technical service increases were primarily from architecture and engineering services and computer design services, each adding 7.4 thousand new jobs. Management and technical consulting added 6.4 thousand new jobs. Legal services added 3.9 thousand jobs, a rare increase in recent months. Among administrative and support services employment agencies and temporary help services added 27.8 thousand jobs reversing last month's losses.
The trade, transportation and utilities sector reversed last months decline, adding 22 thousand more jobs. Retail was the primary reason with 29.3 thousand jobs more jobs, although wholesale trade added 7.4 thousand jobs. Transportation jobs were down 16.6 thousand with the losses concentrated in urban transit and surface transportation, which had an unusual loss of 11 thousand jobs.
Health care added 18 thousand new jobs for April, below the usual monthly increase. Health care job growth has a 5 year average annual growth rate of 2.06 percent and a 15 year growth rate of 2.39 percent, but this month's increase was an annual increase of 1.31 percent. Ambulatory health care was the big gainer with 15.4 thousand jobs in the offices of physicians and home health care both adding jobs for April.
Leisure and Hospitality picked up a net of 12 thousand jobs, which were 19.7 thousand more jobs at restaurants and 7 thousand more jobs in accommodations, but a drop of 15.1 thousand jobs in arts, entertainment and recreation. Spectator sports and recreation both dropped jobs.
Information services and financial activities continue at about their long term trends, which mean they lose in percentage share of national employment with small monthly employment losses or occasional small gains. This month information is down 2 thousand jobs and financial activities that include real estate were up 1 thousand.
The April gain amounts to a modest holding on with a picture very similar to last month. Long term shifts and changes continue except for the modest gains in manufacturing. Auto sales have helped but this month job gains in vehicles and parts was only 1.3 thousand jobs. Higher gas prices cut into the benefits of spending and employment from the social security tax cuts. The economy is not strong enough to revive construction and real estate despite historic lows for mortgage interest rates. Government jobs keeping going down. Not a bad month but not good either.
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April Details
Non Farm Total +115
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported Non-Farm employment for establishments increased from March by 115 thousand jobs for an April total of 132.989 million. (Note 1 below) An increase of 115 thousand each month for the next 12 months represents an annual growth rate of 1.04%. The annual growth rate from a year ago beginning April 2010 was +1.38%; the average annual growth rate from 5 years ago beginning April 2006 was -.66%; from 15 years ago beginning April 1996 it was .57%. America needs growth around 1.5 percent a year to keep itself employed.
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Sector breakdown for 12 Sectors in 000's of jobs
1. Natural Resources +0
Natural Resources including logging and mining stayed the same from March at 837 thousand jobs in April. Natural resource jobs are up 69 thousand for the 12 months just ended. Jobs in the 1990's totaled around 770 thousand. Job growth here will be small compared to America's job needs. This is the smallest of 12 major sectors of the economy with .63 percent of establishment jobs.
2. Construction -2
Construction jobs were down 2 thousand from March to 5.558 million jobs in April. A decrease of 2 thousand jobs each month for the next 12 months would be an annual growth rate of -.43 percent. Construction jobs are up 63 thousand for the last 12 months. The growth rate for the last 5 years is -6.28%. Construction jobs rank 9th among the 12 sectors with 4.2 percent of non farm employment.
3. Manufacturing +16
Manufacturing jobs were up by 16 thousand from March to 11.947 million in April. An increase of 16 thousand each month for the next 12 months would be an annual growth rate of +1.61 percent. Jobs were up for the last 12 months by 229 thousand. In 1994, manufacturing ranked 2nd but now ranks 6th among 12 major sectors in the economy with 9.0 percent of establishment jobs.
4. Trade, Transportation & Utility +22
Trade, both wholesale and retail, transportation and utility employment was up by 22 thousand jobs from March to 25.252 million jobs in April. These jobs tend to increase at a slower rate than the total of non-farm jobs, but an increase of 22 thousand each month for the next 12 months would be an annual growth rate of +1.05 percent. Jobs are up by 270 thousand for the last 12 months. Growth rates for the last 5 years are -1.04 percent. Jobs in these sectors rank first as the biggest sectors with combined employment of 19.0 percent of total establishment employment.
5. Information Services -2
Information Services employment was down by 2 thousand from March at 2.628 million jobs in April. A decrease of 2 thousand each month for the next 12 months would be an annual growth rate of -.91 percent. (Note 2 below) Jobs are down by 43 thousand for the last 12 months. Monthly employment in information services gyrates and has been doing so for a number of years. Information jobs reached 3.7 million at the end of 2000, but started dropping, reaching 3 million by 2004 and further below 3 million by 2008. Information Services is a small sector ranking 11th of 12 with 2.0 percent of establishment jobs.
6. Financial Activities +1
Financial Activities were up 1 thousand jobs from March to 7.719 million in April. An increase of 1 thousand each month for the next 12 months would be an annual growth rate of +.16 percent. Jobs are up 40 thousand for the last 12 months. (Note 3 below)This sector also includes real estate as well as real estate lending. Financial Services has been declining with negative annual growth rates, a 5 year growth rate of -1.48 percent, and a 15 year growth rate of
+.53 percent. Financial activities rank 8 of 12 with 5.8 percent of establishment jobs.
7. Business & Professional Services +62
Business and Professional Service jobs went up 62 thousand from March to 17.860 million in April. An increase of 62 thousand each month for the next 12 months would be an annual growth rate of +4.18 percent. Jobs are up 618 thousand for the last 12 months. Note 4 The annual growth rate for the last 5 years was -.06 percent. It ranks as 2nd among the 12 sectors. It was third in May 1993, when manufacturing was bigger and second rank now with 13.4 percent of establishment employment.
8. Education including public and private -1
Education jobs went down 1 thousand jobs from March at 13.575 million in April. These include public and private education. A decrease of 1 thousand each month for the next 12 months would be an annual growth rate of -.08 percent. Jobs are up 29 thousand for the last 12 months. (note 5) Most monthly educational employment goes up, but lately it is down. The 15 year growth rate equals 1.57 percent, faster than the national average. Education ranks 4th among 12 sectors with 10.2 percent of establishment jobs.
9. Health Care +18
Health care jobs were up 18 thousand from March to 16.925 million in April. An increase of 18 thousand each month for the next 12 months would be an annual growth rate of 1.31 percent. Jobs are up 354 thousand for the last 12 months. (note 6) The current month was below long term trends and less than growth from a year ago when the annual growth rate was +2.14 percent. Health care has been growing at 2.39 percent annual growth rate for 15 years, a rate nearly double the national rate. Health care ranks 3rd of 12 with 12.7 percent of establishment jobs.
10. Leisure and hospitality +12
Leisure and hospitality jobs went up 12 thousand from March to 13.612 million in April. An increase of 12 thousand each month for the next 12 months would be an annual growth rate of +1.06 percent. Jobs are up 317 thousand for the last 12 months. (note 7) The 5 year growth rate is .33%. More than 80 percent of leisure and hospitality are accommodations and restaurants assuring that most of the new jobs are in restaurants. Leisure and hospitality rank 4th of 12 with 10.2 percent of establishment jobs. It moved up from 7th in the 1990's to 5th in the last few years.
11. Other -2
Other Service jobs, which include repair, maintenance, personal services and non-profit organizations went down 2 thousand from March to 5.358 million in April. A decrease of 2 thousand each month for the next 12 months would be an annual growth rate of -.45 percent. Jobs are up 23 thousand for the last 12 months. (note 8) Other services had no growth for the last 5 years. These sectors rank 10th of 12 with 4.0 percent of total non-farm establishment jobs.
12. Government, excluding education -11
Government service employment went down 11 thousand from March to 11.716 million in April. A decrease of 11 thousand each month for the next 12 months would be an annual growth rate of -1.11 percent. Jobs are down 155 thousand for the last 12 months. (note 9) Government jobs excluding education tend to increase slowly but surely with a 15 year growth rate of .42 percent. Government, excluding education, ranks 7th of 12 with 8.8 percent of total non-farm establishment jobs.
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Sector Notes___________________________
(1) The total cited above is non-farm establishment employment that counts jobs and not people. If one person has two jobs then two jobs are counted. It excludes agricultural employment and the self employed. Out of a total of people employed agricultural employment typically has about 1.5 percent, the self employed about 6.8 percent, the rest make up wage and salary employment. Jobs and people employed are close to the same, but not identical numbers because jobs are not the same as people employed: some hold two jobs. Remember all these totals are jobs. back
(2) Information Services is part of the new North American Industry Classification System(NAICS). It includes firms or establishments in publishing, motion picture & sound recording, broadcasting, Internet publishing and broadcasting, telecommunications, ISPs, web search portals, data processing, libraries, archives and a few others.back
(3) Financial Activities includes deposit and non-deposit credit firms, most of which are still known as banks, savings and loan and credit unions, but also real estate firms and general and commercial rental and leasing.back
(4) Business and Professional services includes the professional areas such as legal services, architecture, engineering, computing, advertising and supporting services including office services, facilities support, services to buildings, security services, employment agencies and so on.back
(5) Education includes private and public education. Therefore education job totals include public schools and colleges as well as private schools and colleges. back
(6) Health care includes ambulatory care, private hospitals, nursing and residential care, and social services including child care. back
(7) Leisure and hospitality has establishment with arts, entertainment and recreation which has performing arts, spectator sports, gambling, fitness centers and others, which are the leisure part. The hospitality part has accommodations, motels, hotels, RV parks, and full service and fast food restaurants. back
(8) Other is a smorgasbord of repair and maintenance services, especially car repair, personal services and non-profit services of organizations like foundations, social advocacy and civic groups, and business, professional, labor unions, political groups and political parties. back
(9) Government job totals include federal, state, and local government administrative work but without education jobs. back
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Notes
Jobs are not the same as employment because jobs are counted once but one person could have two jobs adding one to employment but two to jobs. Also the employment numbers include agricultural workers, the self employed, unpaid family workers, household workers and those on unpaid leave. Jobs are establishment jobs and non-other. back
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Monday, December 31, 2012
Saturday, May 26, 2012
College Degree Round UP
Up dated and Revised with new data May 2012
College Degree Round Up
American colleges and universities continue to turn out graduates, and in ever increasing numbers. In the year ending June 2010, the last year of complete data, the National Center for Education Statistics at the United States Department of Education reported 849,452 graduates receiving associates degrees, 1,650,014 receiving Baccalaureate degrees, 693,025 receiving master's degrees, 70,127 receiving doctoral degrees, and 94,103 receiving professional degrees. Professional degrees include medical, pharmacy, veterinary, law and theology. All are up from the previous year.
In 1900 the decennial census counted that year's college graduates; 27,410 received Baccalaureate Degrees from degree granting colleges. After reaching 186,500 in 1940, BA degrees climbed to 432,048 in 1950 when WWII veterans began taking advantage of the GI Bill of Rights and entered college in large numbers. Earned degrees declined some later in the 1950's; but surpassed all earlier numbers by 1964. Earned baccalaureate degrees jumped to 792,316 in June of 1970; 900 thousand in 1973; 1 million in 1989. In June 2000, 1,237,875 earned Baccalaureate degrees from accredited degree granting colleges and universities. The total of 2010 degrees, associate, masters, doctorate, and first-time professional in addition to the 1,650,014 BA degrees mentioned above came to 3,356,721 for the year ending June 2010.
Growth Rates
The numbers receiving United State College degrees continue to grow at a 2.78 percent annual average rate over the last 20 years; more than double the growth rate for the adult population and more than double the growth rate of the civilian labor force. The rate applies to the total of degrees granted from U.S. colleges and universities: associate, baccalaureate, masters, doctorates and first professional degrees. In this way America is getting better educated with a better educated workforce.
Growth rates vary widely by sex and by level of degree. Women have higher growth rates in all degree levels going back to 1990. Women were 41 percent of BA degrees in 1970 but they make up 57.2 percent of the degrees in 2010 leaving 42.8 percent to men. In 2010, women graduates out numbered the men in associates, baccalaureate, masters and doctorate degrees. Men hold a slight edge in professional degrees, but that has fallen to less than a thousand a year. For the past twenty years the growth rate of women degree candidates in professions, primarily law and medicine, was 7 times that of men. Women will soon be the majority in the professions.
The master's degree has the highest annual growth rate at 3.87 percent starting from June 1990. The rate for women is 4.58 percent; for men 2.96 percent. Associates degrees are second with a growth rate of 3.17 percent a year, but the growth rate is the combination of a 2.66 percent for men and a 3.51 percent women.
The 70,127 who received doctoral degrees is the highest ever. The doctorate holds third place in growth rate at 3.06 percent per year from 1990 to 2010. Women have a higher growth rate at 5.03 percent compared to 1.49 percent for men. Women doctorates were just slightly over a thousand a year in 1960, but passed 37 thousand for 2010, the highest number ever; Women passed men in 2007 and every year since then.
Baccalaureate degrees hold fourth place at an annual growth rate 2.28 percent. That means almost 555 thousand more degrees in 2010 than 1990. Again growth rates for women are higher than men: 2.65 percent for women, 1.83 percent for men.
The slowest annual growth of all comes in first professional degrees with an annual growth rate of only 1.42 percent. Medical Doctor, also known as the MD degree, has the low growth rate of professional degrees: .39 percent. Among other medical specialties podiatry and chiropractic medicine have negative growth and optometry has low growth, .9 percent. None of these other medical degrees are as important to the country as the MD degree where America's medical schools turned out just 16,356 graduates in 2010, which is just 418 more than 1985-86. Veterinary medicine has higher growth than the MD degree, although lower numbers. Pharmacy degrees have the highest growth rate among first professional degrees. Pharmacy is the third leading first time professional degree with 11,873 thousand graduates in 2010 compared to 1,244 in 1990. Outside of medicine, law degrees continue to grow at a slow but steady pace of .78 percent a year with 44,345 graduates in 2010, just 300 more than last year. Theology has negative growth.
Degree Program Details 2010
The National Center for Education Statistics defines individual degree programs within a hierarchy of programs defined as part of its Classification of Instructional Programs, or CIP for short. Individual degrees are grouped as part of related degrees in a broader group of functional levels. For example, civil engineering is an instructional degree program within the broader functional level, engineering. Political science is an instructional degree program within the broader functional level, social science.
Associates degrees, were up 849,452 in 2010 as mentioned above. The National Center for Education Statistics first started reporting associates degrees in June of 1966 when they were 111,607 graduates. They have increased with almost every year bigger than the last. Degrees in liberal arts and science, general studies and humanities continue to grow with 284,775 degrees in 2010, which was 33.5 percent of associates degrees and more than any other field of study. Health professions hold second place with 177,686; business degrees have third place with 133,371 degrees. Many with associate’s degrees go on to finish baccalaureate degrees but many associates degree have career oriented degrees that could be terminal degrees for entry level training. Personal and culinary services, criminal justice and corrections, mechanics and repairers are three degrees with 65,526 graduates in 2010 and specific entry skills to begin a career. Computer and information sciences and support services continued a fourth year of increase with 32,466 degrees, 76 percent men. The total remains below the 46 thousand degrees of 2003. Many of the technical programs in nursing, health, engineering and architecture provide entry skills, but also a beginning path to baccalaureate or advanced degree training.
Baccalaureate degrees were up to 1,650,014 for the year ending June 2010. The National Center for Education Statistics reports at least one degree in 870 different Baccalaurette instructional degree programs, also known as fields of study, or majors. Business baccalaureate programs had the highest percentage of total BA degrees: 21.7 percent. Social science degrees including history, political science, sociology, economics and history was second with 172,780 degrees, or 10.5 percent of BA degrees, relatively more important than third place health care and related occupations with 129,634 and 7.86 percent of BA degrees. Health care and related professions has a 5 year average increase with 9,790 degrees, the highest of the broad BA degree fields of study and therefore higher than business with 9,344, and social sciences with 3,178.
No other field of study with BA degrees has as much as 7 percent of degrees. Education has 101,708 at 6.14 percent, primarily elementary education. Psychology has 97,216 at 5.89 percent of degrees. Biology and life sciences, and visual and performing arts have over 5 percent, and communications, journalism and related studies have 4.9 percent. Important degrees in computer and information sciences have only 39,589 BA degrees, just 2.4 percent of the total; engineering did a little better with 72,654 BA degrees, a 4.4 percent share. However, computer and information sciences have a negative 5 year average increase. Several BA fields of study show a 20 year decline: English language and literature and mathematics and statistics and the BA in education, although all three continue with significant numbers:
Masters degrees were up for the year as they have every year for more than a decade. At least one degree reported for 845 different degree programs, but degrees tend to be concentrated in a few fields. Like the Baccalaureate degree the masters degree in business holds first place with 177,684 master’s degrees and 108,696 of the degrees in the single program, the MBA degree. Business has 25.6 percent of master’s degrees. However, business degrees are second to education master’s degrees with 182,139 in 95 degree programs. Just over 26.3 percent of all masters degrees are in educational specialties for the year ending June 2010.
Education is a degree level where there are more master’s degrees than baccalaureate degrees. Library science, social work, and counseling also have more masters than baccalaureate degrees. Library science had 85 BA degrees; 7,448 masters degrees for 2010. In education for nearly all the public schools teachers that earn masters degree in educational specialties open career opportunities teaching in specialized programs and move to a higher pay scale. The master degree is often directly tied with career opportunity and advancement.
Health professions holds third place with 69,084 masters degrees, 10.0 percent of the total. The largest master’s degree training occurs in nursing with 9,132 MSN degrees compared to 73,916 at the BA degree level. Public health is next with 5,293 degrees and health care administration and management is third place with 5,687 degrees.
There were 35,088 masters degrees reported in 42 engineering degree programs. Computer and information services specialties had 17,953 master’s degrees, up from only 13,063 in 2009, but less than the 20,143 high in 2004. It has fewer degrees than social work which had 19,581 degrees, despite higher job prospects and salaries in computer and information services. Chemistry leads physical science degrees, but with only 2,085 degrees. Mathematics had 2,060 master’s degrees but both math and science are small compared to business, education and health professions masters degrees.
Doctoral degrees were up to 70,127 for the year ending June 2010. Annual growth rates continue to be very high with a five year average increase of 3,499. Doctoral candidates are up every year for over a decade. The health professions had 13,660 doctorates, or 19.2 percent of doctorates for the year. The total does not include the MD degree, which is a professional degree. Second place goes to education with 9,233 doctorates and 13.2 percent of the total. Biology and biomedical PhD’s had 7,666 degrees, or 10.9 percent of doctorates; physical sciences 5,063 degrees, or 7.2 percent of doctorates. The biological and physical sciences have a higher share of doctorates than they do for baccalaureate degree programs. Specialties in psychology in 22 programs with at least one degree totaled 5,540 doctorates. In the social sciences, economics, political science, sociology and history have the largest share of the 4,238 social science doctorates. Business has only 2,245 doctorates, mostly the DBA. English language and literature shows a decline since 1970, but modest growth since 1990 with 1,056 doctorates in 1990 and 1,332 in 2010.
Percentage Distribution of All Degrees Granted for the Year Ending June 2010
1. Business, management, marketing - - - makes up 22.3% of all degrees
2. Education - - - makes up 12.1% of all degrees
3. Social Sciences, and history, lib-arts, general-studies, multi-disciplinary - - - 12.1%
4. Health Professions - - - 8.8%
5. Physical sciences, Biological and Biomedical sciences - - - 5.8%
6. Psychology - - - 5.2%
7. Engineering - - - 4.8%
8. Visual and performing arts - - - 4.5%
9. English language/literature/letters, Area & ethnic stud, Foreign lang - - - 4.2%
10. Communication, journalism, and related programs - - - 3.7%
11. Public administration and social service professions - - - 2.6%
12. Computer science - - - 2.5%
13. Homeland security, law enforcement, and firefighting - - - 2.1%
14. Parks, recreation, leisure and fitness studies - - - 1.6%
15. Philosophy and religious studies, Theology and Religious Vocations - - - 1.6%
16. Natural resources and Agriculture - - - 1.4%
17. Family and consumer sciences/human sciences - - - 1.0%
18. Mathematics and Statistics - - - 1.0%
19. Engineering technologies/technicians - - - .9%
20. Architecture - - - .7%
21. Legal professions - - - .4%
22. Library science - - - .3%
23. Communications technologies/technicians and support services - - -.2%
24. Transportation and materials moving technologies - - -.2%
College Degree Round Up
American colleges and universities continue to turn out graduates, and in ever increasing numbers. In the year ending June 2010, the last year of complete data, the National Center for Education Statistics at the United States Department of Education reported 849,452 graduates receiving associates degrees, 1,650,014 receiving Baccalaureate degrees, 693,025 receiving master's degrees, 70,127 receiving doctoral degrees, and 94,103 receiving professional degrees. Professional degrees include medical, pharmacy, veterinary, law and theology. All are up from the previous year.
In 1900 the decennial census counted that year's college graduates; 27,410 received Baccalaureate Degrees from degree granting colleges. After reaching 186,500 in 1940, BA degrees climbed to 432,048 in 1950 when WWII veterans began taking advantage of the GI Bill of Rights and entered college in large numbers. Earned degrees declined some later in the 1950's; but surpassed all earlier numbers by 1964. Earned baccalaureate degrees jumped to 792,316 in June of 1970; 900 thousand in 1973; 1 million in 1989. In June 2000, 1,237,875 earned Baccalaureate degrees from accredited degree granting colleges and universities. The total of 2010 degrees, associate, masters, doctorate, and first-time professional in addition to the 1,650,014 BA degrees mentioned above came to 3,356,721 for the year ending June 2010.
Growth Rates
The numbers receiving United State College degrees continue to grow at a 2.78 percent annual average rate over the last 20 years; more than double the growth rate for the adult population and more than double the growth rate of the civilian labor force. The rate applies to the total of degrees granted from U.S. colleges and universities: associate, baccalaureate, masters, doctorates and first professional degrees. In this way America is getting better educated with a better educated workforce.
Growth rates vary widely by sex and by level of degree. Women have higher growth rates in all degree levels going back to 1990. Women were 41 percent of BA degrees in 1970 but they make up 57.2 percent of the degrees in 2010 leaving 42.8 percent to men. In 2010, women graduates out numbered the men in associates, baccalaureate, masters and doctorate degrees. Men hold a slight edge in professional degrees, but that has fallen to less than a thousand a year. For the past twenty years the growth rate of women degree candidates in professions, primarily law and medicine, was 7 times that of men. Women will soon be the majority in the professions.
The master's degree has the highest annual growth rate at 3.87 percent starting from June 1990. The rate for women is 4.58 percent; for men 2.96 percent. Associates degrees are second with a growth rate of 3.17 percent a year, but the growth rate is the combination of a 2.66 percent for men and a 3.51 percent women.
The 70,127 who received doctoral degrees is the highest ever. The doctorate holds third place in growth rate at 3.06 percent per year from 1990 to 2010. Women have a higher growth rate at 5.03 percent compared to 1.49 percent for men. Women doctorates were just slightly over a thousand a year in 1960, but passed 37 thousand for 2010, the highest number ever; Women passed men in 2007 and every year since then.
Baccalaureate degrees hold fourth place at an annual growth rate 2.28 percent. That means almost 555 thousand more degrees in 2010 than 1990. Again growth rates for women are higher than men: 2.65 percent for women, 1.83 percent for men.
The slowest annual growth of all comes in first professional degrees with an annual growth rate of only 1.42 percent. Medical Doctor, also known as the MD degree, has the low growth rate of professional degrees: .39 percent. Among other medical specialties podiatry and chiropractic medicine have negative growth and optometry has low growth, .9 percent. None of these other medical degrees are as important to the country as the MD degree where America's medical schools turned out just 16,356 graduates in 2010, which is just 418 more than 1985-86. Veterinary medicine has higher growth than the MD degree, although lower numbers. Pharmacy degrees have the highest growth rate among first professional degrees. Pharmacy is the third leading first time professional degree with 11,873 thousand graduates in 2010 compared to 1,244 in 1990. Outside of medicine, law degrees continue to grow at a slow but steady pace of .78 percent a year with 44,345 graduates in 2010, just 300 more than last year. Theology has negative growth.
Degree Program Details 2010
The National Center for Education Statistics defines individual degree programs within a hierarchy of programs defined as part of its Classification of Instructional Programs, or CIP for short. Individual degrees are grouped as part of related degrees in a broader group of functional levels. For example, civil engineering is an instructional degree program within the broader functional level, engineering. Political science is an instructional degree program within the broader functional level, social science.
Associates degrees, were up 849,452 in 2010 as mentioned above. The National Center for Education Statistics first started reporting associates degrees in June of 1966 when they were 111,607 graduates. They have increased with almost every year bigger than the last. Degrees in liberal arts and science, general studies and humanities continue to grow with 284,775 degrees in 2010, which was 33.5 percent of associates degrees and more than any other field of study. Health professions hold second place with 177,686; business degrees have third place with 133,371 degrees. Many with associate’s degrees go on to finish baccalaureate degrees but many associates degree have career oriented degrees that could be terminal degrees for entry level training. Personal and culinary services, criminal justice and corrections, mechanics and repairers are three degrees with 65,526 graduates in 2010 and specific entry skills to begin a career. Computer and information sciences and support services continued a fourth year of increase with 32,466 degrees, 76 percent men. The total remains below the 46 thousand degrees of 2003. Many of the technical programs in nursing, health, engineering and architecture provide entry skills, but also a beginning path to baccalaureate or advanced degree training.
Baccalaureate degrees were up to 1,650,014 for the year ending June 2010. The National Center for Education Statistics reports at least one degree in 870 different Baccalaurette instructional degree programs, also known as fields of study, or majors. Business baccalaureate programs had the highest percentage of total BA degrees: 21.7 percent. Social science degrees including history, political science, sociology, economics and history was second with 172,780 degrees, or 10.5 percent of BA degrees, relatively more important than third place health care and related occupations with 129,634 and 7.86 percent of BA degrees. Health care and related professions has a 5 year average increase with 9,790 degrees, the highest of the broad BA degree fields of study and therefore higher than business with 9,344, and social sciences with 3,178.
No other field of study with BA degrees has as much as 7 percent of degrees. Education has 101,708 at 6.14 percent, primarily elementary education. Psychology has 97,216 at 5.89 percent of degrees. Biology and life sciences, and visual and performing arts have over 5 percent, and communications, journalism and related studies have 4.9 percent. Important degrees in computer and information sciences have only 39,589 BA degrees, just 2.4 percent of the total; engineering did a little better with 72,654 BA degrees, a 4.4 percent share. However, computer and information sciences have a negative 5 year average increase. Several BA fields of study show a 20 year decline: English language and literature and mathematics and statistics and the BA in education, although all three continue with significant numbers:
Masters degrees were up for the year as they have every year for more than a decade. At least one degree reported for 845 different degree programs, but degrees tend to be concentrated in a few fields. Like the Baccalaureate degree the masters degree in business holds first place with 177,684 master’s degrees and 108,696 of the degrees in the single program, the MBA degree. Business has 25.6 percent of master’s degrees. However, business degrees are second to education master’s degrees with 182,139 in 95 degree programs. Just over 26.3 percent of all masters degrees are in educational specialties for the year ending June 2010.
Education is a degree level where there are more master’s degrees than baccalaureate degrees. Library science, social work, and counseling also have more masters than baccalaureate degrees. Library science had 85 BA degrees; 7,448 masters degrees for 2010. In education for nearly all the public schools teachers that earn masters degree in educational specialties open career opportunities teaching in specialized programs and move to a higher pay scale. The master degree is often directly tied with career opportunity and advancement.
Health professions holds third place with 69,084 masters degrees, 10.0 percent of the total. The largest master’s degree training occurs in nursing with 9,132 MSN degrees compared to 73,916 at the BA degree level. Public health is next with 5,293 degrees and health care administration and management is third place with 5,687 degrees.
There were 35,088 masters degrees reported in 42 engineering degree programs. Computer and information services specialties had 17,953 master’s degrees, up from only 13,063 in 2009, but less than the 20,143 high in 2004. It has fewer degrees than social work which had 19,581 degrees, despite higher job prospects and salaries in computer and information services. Chemistry leads physical science degrees, but with only 2,085 degrees. Mathematics had 2,060 master’s degrees but both math and science are small compared to business, education and health professions masters degrees.
Doctoral degrees were up to 70,127 for the year ending June 2010. Annual growth rates continue to be very high with a five year average increase of 3,499. Doctoral candidates are up every year for over a decade. The health professions had 13,660 doctorates, or 19.2 percent of doctorates for the year. The total does not include the MD degree, which is a professional degree. Second place goes to education with 9,233 doctorates and 13.2 percent of the total. Biology and biomedical PhD’s had 7,666 degrees, or 10.9 percent of doctorates; physical sciences 5,063 degrees, or 7.2 percent of doctorates. The biological and physical sciences have a higher share of doctorates than they do for baccalaureate degree programs. Specialties in psychology in 22 programs with at least one degree totaled 5,540 doctorates. In the social sciences, economics, political science, sociology and history have the largest share of the 4,238 social science doctorates. Business has only 2,245 doctorates, mostly the DBA. English language and literature shows a decline since 1970, but modest growth since 1990 with 1,056 doctorates in 1990 and 1,332 in 2010.
Percentage Distribution of All Degrees Granted for the Year Ending June 2010
1. Business, management, marketing - - - makes up 22.3% of all degrees
2. Education - - - makes up 12.1% of all degrees
3. Social Sciences, and history, lib-arts, general-studies, multi-disciplinary - - - 12.1%
4. Health Professions - - - 8.8%
5. Physical sciences, Biological and Biomedical sciences - - - 5.8%
6. Psychology - - - 5.2%
7. Engineering - - - 4.8%
8. Visual and performing arts - - - 4.5%
9. English language/literature/letters, Area & ethnic stud, Foreign lang - - - 4.2%
10. Communication, journalism, and related programs - - - 3.7%
11. Public administration and social service professions - - - 2.6%
12. Computer science - - - 2.5%
13. Homeland security, law enforcement, and firefighting - - - 2.1%
14. Parks, recreation, leisure and fitness studies - - - 1.6%
15. Philosophy and religious studies, Theology and Religious Vocations - - - 1.6%
16. Natural resources and Agriculture - - - 1.4%
17. Family and consumer sciences/human sciences - - - 1.0%
18. Mathematics and Statistics - - - 1.0%
19. Engineering technologies/technicians - - - .9%
20. Architecture - - - .7%
21. Legal professions - - - .4%
22. Library science - - - .3%
23. Communications technologies/technicians and support services - - -.2%
24. Transportation and materials moving technologies - - -.2%
Sunday, May 20, 2012
Cheap Labor - Down on the Farm
On April 30, 2012 the associated press wrote a story titled “Move to kill planned rules on child farm labor draws criticism.” The article tells readers the Obama administration has abandoned a proposal to restrict the use of child labor on dangerous farm jobs. Restrictions for 16 year olds banned them from operating power driven farm machinery especially tractors, working at heights to protect against falls, and from castrating farm animals. Other limitations among 15 new rules banned 18 year olds from working in grain silos, feet lots and stock yards. Exemptions allowed exclusion for children working on their parent’s farm.
Proponents argued that four times more children are killed while performing farm work than those in all other industries combined. Republican opponents called the plan “impractical, heavy-handed regulation that ignored the reality of small farms.” Democrat Al Franken from a farm state offered his opposition. Sarah Palin chimed in from her Facebook page with her own apocalyptic worry: “If I wanted America to fail, I’d ban kids from farm work.” Gee?
The American Farm Bureau waxed sentimental because “the new prohibitions would upset traditions in which many children work on farms owned by uncles, grandparents and other relatives to reduce costs and learn how a farm operates.
We could suppose the Farm Bureau slipped up here when they worried about reducing cost because the quoted comments sound mostly intended to divert attention from the true purpose of their opposition: cheap labor.
Access to cheap immigrant labor helped reduce farm costs for a number of years, but Republicans have always had to fake their opposition to immigration because part of their right wing constituents don’t like it, even though their agri-business and corporate farm constituents do. Now that cheap immigrants are harder to find, the Republicans need to find some new source of cheap labor.
The article mentioned the government’s estimate that 300,000 children were involved out of about 1.4 million the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports working in wage and salary employment in agriculture. Since the government exempted children of family farms we can expect the 300,000 children in question are mostly helping to save money for corporate agriculture.
With 12 million unemployed and quite a few millions more leaving the labor force for lack of work it does appear adult replacements might be found, but possibly not at the pathetic wages big business expects to pay the kids. Since the farm price support subsidies go more and more to agri-business as they become fully integrated companies operating from the farm to the supermarket, we have to expect farm subsidies are much bigger than the difference between adult wages and the low wages to children.
Using child labor goes back many years. Congress passed the Keating-Owen Child Labor Act way back in 1916. It was an age when the courts were the primary source of aid to business in their eternal quest for cheap labor. With this in mind reformers were careful to craft a bill which relied on the commerce clause of the constitution to prohibit the transportation of products through interstate commerce if they were produced with child labor.
Using authority in the commerce clause was a practical strategy intended to defer to, or satisfy, the judicial review they were certain would come. In previous cases the court repeatedly ruled that the commerce clause of the constitution provided Congress with unqualified powers in the regulation of interstate commerce.
Even though the court had previously upheld a ban on the interstate transportation of adulterated drugs, and another banning the interstate sale of lottery tickets, and another banning the interstate transportation of women for immoral purposes, the justices searched for previously unheard of excuses to undo the child labor legislation.
In the Supreme Court case known as Hammer v. Dagenhart the court wrote that the interstate transportation of adulterated drugs, lottery tickets, and prostitutes created “harmful results” but the new law that restricted children under 14 from working more than 8 hours a day, or more than 6 days a week, or before 6 A.M. or after 7 P..M. in textile mills did not create “harmful results” and was therefore beyond the power of Congress to regulate.
In the wrap up to their long and convoluted written opinion the justices declared the Keating-Owen Child Labor act “repugnant” to the constitution. The Supreme Court opinion came on June 3, 1918, or 94 years before Sarah Palin told us America will fail banning kids from farm work. Decide for yourself, but I do not see satisfactory progress in America’s attitudes toward exploiting children, or making excuses for using cheap child labor.
Proponents argued that four times more children are killed while performing farm work than those in all other industries combined. Republican opponents called the plan “impractical, heavy-handed regulation that ignored the reality of small farms.” Democrat Al Franken from a farm state offered his opposition. Sarah Palin chimed in from her Facebook page with her own apocalyptic worry: “If I wanted America to fail, I’d ban kids from farm work.” Gee?
The American Farm Bureau waxed sentimental because “the new prohibitions would upset traditions in which many children work on farms owned by uncles, grandparents and other relatives to reduce costs and learn how a farm operates.
We could suppose the Farm Bureau slipped up here when they worried about reducing cost because the quoted comments sound mostly intended to divert attention from the true purpose of their opposition: cheap labor.
Access to cheap immigrant labor helped reduce farm costs for a number of years, but Republicans have always had to fake their opposition to immigration because part of their right wing constituents don’t like it, even though their agri-business and corporate farm constituents do. Now that cheap immigrants are harder to find, the Republicans need to find some new source of cheap labor.
The article mentioned the government’s estimate that 300,000 children were involved out of about 1.4 million the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports working in wage and salary employment in agriculture. Since the government exempted children of family farms we can expect the 300,000 children in question are mostly helping to save money for corporate agriculture.
With 12 million unemployed and quite a few millions more leaving the labor force for lack of work it does appear adult replacements might be found, but possibly not at the pathetic wages big business expects to pay the kids. Since the farm price support subsidies go more and more to agri-business as they become fully integrated companies operating from the farm to the supermarket, we have to expect farm subsidies are much bigger than the difference between adult wages and the low wages to children.
Using child labor goes back many years. Congress passed the Keating-Owen Child Labor Act way back in 1916. It was an age when the courts were the primary source of aid to business in their eternal quest for cheap labor. With this in mind reformers were careful to craft a bill which relied on the commerce clause of the constitution to prohibit the transportation of products through interstate commerce if they were produced with child labor.
Using authority in the commerce clause was a practical strategy intended to defer to, or satisfy, the judicial review they were certain would come. In previous cases the court repeatedly ruled that the commerce clause of the constitution provided Congress with unqualified powers in the regulation of interstate commerce.
Even though the court had previously upheld a ban on the interstate transportation of adulterated drugs, and another banning the interstate sale of lottery tickets, and another banning the interstate transportation of women for immoral purposes, the justices searched for previously unheard of excuses to undo the child labor legislation.
In the Supreme Court case known as Hammer v. Dagenhart the court wrote that the interstate transportation of adulterated drugs, lottery tickets, and prostitutes created “harmful results” but the new law that restricted children under 14 from working more than 8 hours a day, or more than 6 days a week, or before 6 A.M. or after 7 P..M. in textile mills did not create “harmful results” and was therefore beyond the power of Congress to regulate.
In the wrap up to their long and convoluted written opinion the justices declared the Keating-Owen Child Labor act “repugnant” to the constitution. The Supreme Court opinion came on June 3, 1918, or 94 years before Sarah Palin told us America will fail banning kids from farm work. Decide for yourself, but I do not see satisfactory progress in America’s attitudes toward exploiting children, or making excuses for using cheap child labor.
Monday, May 7, 2012
Physical Therapy
Physical therapy services are part of health care that is delivered by people working in three occupations: Physical Therapists, Physical Therapist Assistants and Physical Therapist Aides. The three and their Standard Occupational Classification codes are defined below.
29-1123 Physical Therapists
Assess, plan, organize, and participate in rehabilitative programs that improve mobility, relieve pain, increase strength, and decrease or prevent deformity of patients suffering from disease or injury.
31-2021 Physical Therapist Assistants
Assist physical therapists in providing physical therapy treatments and procedures. May, in accordance with State laws, assist in the development of treatment plans, carry out routine functions, document the progress of treatment, and modify specific treatments in accordance with patient status and within the scope of treatment plans established by a physical therapist. Generally requires formal training.
31-2022 Physical Therapist Aides
Under close supervision of a physical therapist or physical therapy assistant, perform only delegated, selected, or routine tasks in specific situations. These duties include preparing the patient and the treatment area.
Physical therapists need a license that usually requires a master’s degree for entry. Around 85 percent work in health care, 5 percent in education and a few try to work as self employed. Physical therapy assistants and aides are tied to working for, or with, physical therapists. Physical therapy assistants do not have specific educational requirements and only about 20 percent have a BA degree or above in any field.
Physical therapy services are like many services in and out of health care in that the occupational definition and work of physical therapist establishes that physical therapists can do all of the work of physical therapy assistants and physical therapy aides. Physical therapy assistants can do all the work of physical therapy aides. Employers have the financial incentive to limit the work of physical therapists to that part of physical therapy that requires the training and license of a physical therapist. By splitting the work into more specialized parts they can hire much cheaper assistants and aides to do the other work and limit the number of jobs they must have for the higher paid work. That goes on in millions of America’s jobs.
National employment as physical therapists reached 185,440 as of 2011, which the Bureau of Labor Statistics classifies as a job needing at least BA degree skills. Jobs are up by an average of 5,912 a year since 2000 with a growth rate far above the national average. Physical therapy assistants had 67,550 jobs in 2011 with jobs up an average of 2,130 a year since 2000 and a growth rate above the national average. Physical therapy aides had 47,640 jobs with jobs up an average of 1,184 a year and growth above the national average.
In general physical therapy degree training is either BA, or usually MA, but any degree training for an assistant might be an associate’s degree in some allied health program. Expect though that no one wants to do physical therapy degree training to be a physical therapy assistant. There is no AA degree in physical therapy as such, but various exercise and health degrees. Therefore, much of the work of the assistant is on the job training. The physical therapy aide job requires some on the job training but should be considered dead end work by itself.
Job growth is not the only measure of new hiring. Job openings equal job growth and the number of net replacements. Net replacements are people who permanently leave an occupation for another occupation or retirement and must be replaced before there can be any job growth. Job openings for physical therapists have been averaging around 8,705 per year in recent years; openings for physical therapy assistants are expected to average 3,525 a year; for physical therapy aides 2,324 a year.
Averages are not used much in wage data. A few high wages pull up the average and make it unrepresentative. Instead a distribution range of wages is published with the 10th, 25th, median, 75th, and 90th percentiles of wages. A 10th percentile wage means 10 percent working in this job have wages equal to or less than the 10th percentile wage and so on. Annual wages are converted to hourly wages by dividing annual by 2,080.
The entry wage in the 10th percentile for physical therapists is reported as $54,710 in 2011. The median wage is $78,270, and the 90th percentile wage is $110,670. Yearly reported wage increases barely keep up with inflation especially in the higher range of salary. Buying power continues to erode at the median and 90th percentile wage levels despite increases in monetary wages. Entry level wages boosted buying power at the 10th and 25th percentile wage levels compared to the 8 to 10 years ago.
The entry wage in the 10th percentile for physical therapy assistants is reported as $32,030 in 2011. The median wage is $51,040, and the 90th percentile wage is $71,200. Yearly reported wage have been keeping up with inflation. Buying power is up moderately over the last 7 to 8 years.
The entry wage in the 10th percentile for physical therapy aides is reported as $17,180 in 2011. The median wage is $23,680, and the 90th percentile wage is $35,340. Yearly reported wage increases are not keeping up with inflation. Buying power is about the same or a little lower over the last 7 to 8 years.
New BA, MA and doctorate degrees in Physical Therapy are part of 11 different Rehabilitation and Therapeutic Professional degree specialties and those 11 are part of 164 degree programs in health professions and related clinical sciences. BA degrees in physical therapy programs totaled 550 for the year ending 2009. The total is down from the recent high of 778 degrees in 2005. However, the MA degree and Doctorate degree are more important than a BA degree in physical therapy. The MA degree had 1,360 graduates in the year ending June 2009, but that was down from 4,687 in 2002. The doctorate degree had 7,192 degrees in the year ending June 2009, but that was up from 966 in 2001. Therefore the doctorate degree is replacing other physical therapy degrees as the education level for physical therapy.
29-1123 Physical Therapists
Assess, plan, organize, and participate in rehabilitative programs that improve mobility, relieve pain, increase strength, and decrease or prevent deformity of patients suffering from disease or injury.
31-2021 Physical Therapist Assistants
Assist physical therapists in providing physical therapy treatments and procedures. May, in accordance with State laws, assist in the development of treatment plans, carry out routine functions, document the progress of treatment, and modify specific treatments in accordance with patient status and within the scope of treatment plans established by a physical therapist. Generally requires formal training.
31-2022 Physical Therapist Aides
Under close supervision of a physical therapist or physical therapy assistant, perform only delegated, selected, or routine tasks in specific situations. These duties include preparing the patient and the treatment area.
Physical therapists need a license that usually requires a master’s degree for entry. Around 85 percent work in health care, 5 percent in education and a few try to work as self employed. Physical therapy assistants and aides are tied to working for, or with, physical therapists. Physical therapy assistants do not have specific educational requirements and only about 20 percent have a BA degree or above in any field.
Physical therapy services are like many services in and out of health care in that the occupational definition and work of physical therapist establishes that physical therapists can do all of the work of physical therapy assistants and physical therapy aides. Physical therapy assistants can do all the work of physical therapy aides. Employers have the financial incentive to limit the work of physical therapists to that part of physical therapy that requires the training and license of a physical therapist. By splitting the work into more specialized parts they can hire much cheaper assistants and aides to do the other work and limit the number of jobs they must have for the higher paid work. That goes on in millions of America’s jobs.
National employment as physical therapists reached 185,440 as of 2011, which the Bureau of Labor Statistics classifies as a job needing at least BA degree skills. Jobs are up by an average of 5,912 a year since 2000 with a growth rate far above the national average. Physical therapy assistants had 67,550 jobs in 2011 with jobs up an average of 2,130 a year since 2000 and a growth rate above the national average. Physical therapy aides had 47,640 jobs with jobs up an average of 1,184 a year and growth above the national average.
In general physical therapy degree training is either BA, or usually MA, but any degree training for an assistant might be an associate’s degree in some allied health program. Expect though that no one wants to do physical therapy degree training to be a physical therapy assistant. There is no AA degree in physical therapy as such, but various exercise and health degrees. Therefore, much of the work of the assistant is on the job training. The physical therapy aide job requires some on the job training but should be considered dead end work by itself.
Job growth is not the only measure of new hiring. Job openings equal job growth and the number of net replacements. Net replacements are people who permanently leave an occupation for another occupation or retirement and must be replaced before there can be any job growth. Job openings for physical therapists have been averaging around 8,705 per year in recent years; openings for physical therapy assistants are expected to average 3,525 a year; for physical therapy aides 2,324 a year.
Averages are not used much in wage data. A few high wages pull up the average and make it unrepresentative. Instead a distribution range of wages is published with the 10th, 25th, median, 75th, and 90th percentiles of wages. A 10th percentile wage means 10 percent working in this job have wages equal to or less than the 10th percentile wage and so on. Annual wages are converted to hourly wages by dividing annual by 2,080.
The entry wage in the 10th percentile for physical therapists is reported as $54,710 in 2011. The median wage is $78,270, and the 90th percentile wage is $110,670. Yearly reported wage increases barely keep up with inflation especially in the higher range of salary. Buying power continues to erode at the median and 90th percentile wage levels despite increases in monetary wages. Entry level wages boosted buying power at the 10th and 25th percentile wage levels compared to the 8 to 10 years ago.
The entry wage in the 10th percentile for physical therapy assistants is reported as $32,030 in 2011. The median wage is $51,040, and the 90th percentile wage is $71,200. Yearly reported wage have been keeping up with inflation. Buying power is up moderately over the last 7 to 8 years.
The entry wage in the 10th percentile for physical therapy aides is reported as $17,180 in 2011. The median wage is $23,680, and the 90th percentile wage is $35,340. Yearly reported wage increases are not keeping up with inflation. Buying power is about the same or a little lower over the last 7 to 8 years.
New BA, MA and doctorate degrees in Physical Therapy are part of 11 different Rehabilitation and Therapeutic Professional degree specialties and those 11 are part of 164 degree programs in health professions and related clinical sciences. BA degrees in physical therapy programs totaled 550 for the year ending 2009. The total is down from the recent high of 778 degrees in 2005. However, the MA degree and Doctorate degree are more important than a BA degree in physical therapy. The MA degree had 1,360 graduates in the year ending June 2009, but that was down from 4,687 in 2002. The doctorate degree had 7,192 degrees in the year ending June 2009, but that was up from 966 in 2001. Therefore the doctorate degree is replacing other physical therapy degrees as the education level for physical therapy.
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Social and Human Service Assistants
Standard Occupational Classification #21-1093 Social and Human Service Assistants
SOC Definition--Assist professionals from a wide variety of fields, such as psychology, rehabilitation, or social work, to provide client services, as well as support for families. May assist clients in identifying available benefits and social and community services and help clients obtain them. May assist social workers with developing, organizing, and conducting programs to prevent and resolve problems relevant to substance abuse, human relationships, rehabilitation, or adult daycare.
Examples of other common names in use--Addictions Counselor Assistant, Case Work Aide, Clinical Social Work Aide, Family Service Assistant, Human Services Worker, Social Work Assistant
Social and human service assistants exclude those working in occupations (21-1015) Rehabilitation Counselors, (39-9021) Personal and Home Care Aides, (43-4061) Eligibility Interviewers, Government Programs, and (29-2053) Psychiatric Technicians.
Social and human service assistants work in both public and private social assistance establishments. Around 32-36 percent work in private sector firms doing individual and family services, community food and housing services, and vocational rehabilitation services. About 25 to 28 percent work in government social assistance about evenly split between local and state government. They are also employed directly in the health care industry: 16 to 17 percent in nursing and residential care facilities, 5 to 6 percent in outpatient care centers, 4 to 5 percent in hospitals. Religious, civic and social organizations also sponsor some social assistance and hire 5 to 6 percent of social and human service assistants. Almost none are self employed, virtually all work for establishments.
Social and human resource assistants are one of a group of occupations common to social assistance. Include six counseling specialty occupations and four social work occupations as work common to social assistance. Social and human resource assistants are the lowest paid of social assistance occupations. Like many other jobs in education and health care that have aide or assistant in their job titles social and human resource assistants do the time consuming parts of coordinating and delivering services or treatments to clients in order to save time for higher paid professional staff. However, licensing and certification for most social service occupations, especially social work, are less severe than health care. For this reason, social and human resource assistants, especially those with BA degrees, should explore possibilities for advancement once they are familiar with the work.
National employment as Social and Human Service Assistants reached 359,860 as of 2011. Jobs are up by an average of 8,995 a year since 2000 with a growth rate far above the national average. In the recently updated BLS Education and Training Classification assignments for social and human service assistants list high school diploma or equivalent as the entry level education minimum, none for work experience in a related occupation and short term on the job training up to a month as necessary preparation to do the work.
However, survey data percentages are published for the social and human service assistant occupation. Survey results show an educational distribution of 2.4 percent of social and human service assistants have less than a high school degree, 14.4 percent have a high school degree, 20.9 percent have some college, but no degree, 9.5 percent have an associate’s degree, 37.9 percent have a baccalaureate degree, 13.5 percent have a master’s degree and 1.4 percent have a doctorate degree.
Job growth is not the only measure of new hiring. Job openings equal job growth and the number of net replacements. Net replacements are people who permanently leave an occupation for another occupation or retirement and must be replaced before there can be any job growth. Job openings for Social and Human Service Assistants have been averaging around 12,800 per year in recent years.
The basic wage data from the BLS occupational employment survey includes a wage distribution. Averages are not used much in wage data. A few high wages pull up the average and make it unrepresentative. Instead a distribution range of wages is published with the 10th, 25th, median, 75th, and 90th percentiles of wages. A 10th percentile wage means 10 percent working in this job have wages equal to or less than the 10th percentile wage and so on. Annual wages are converted to hourly wages by dividing annual by 2,080.
The entry wage in the 10th percentile for Social and Human Service Assistants is reported as $19,180 in 2011. The 25th percentile wage equals $22, 930. The median wage is $28,740, the 75th percentile wage equals $36,440 and the 90th percentile wage is $45,710. Yearly reported wage increases barely keep up with inflation across the whole salary distribution. Buying remains about the same for the past decade.
SOC Definition--Assist professionals from a wide variety of fields, such as psychology, rehabilitation, or social work, to provide client services, as well as support for families. May assist clients in identifying available benefits and social and community services and help clients obtain them. May assist social workers with developing, organizing, and conducting programs to prevent and resolve problems relevant to substance abuse, human relationships, rehabilitation, or adult daycare.
Examples of other common names in use--Addictions Counselor Assistant, Case Work Aide, Clinical Social Work Aide, Family Service Assistant, Human Services Worker, Social Work Assistant
Social and human service assistants exclude those working in occupations (21-1015) Rehabilitation Counselors, (39-9021) Personal and Home Care Aides, (43-4061) Eligibility Interviewers, Government Programs, and (29-2053) Psychiatric Technicians.
Social and human service assistants work in both public and private social assistance establishments. Around 32-36 percent work in private sector firms doing individual and family services, community food and housing services, and vocational rehabilitation services. About 25 to 28 percent work in government social assistance about evenly split between local and state government. They are also employed directly in the health care industry: 16 to 17 percent in nursing and residential care facilities, 5 to 6 percent in outpatient care centers, 4 to 5 percent in hospitals. Religious, civic and social organizations also sponsor some social assistance and hire 5 to 6 percent of social and human service assistants. Almost none are self employed, virtually all work for establishments.
Social and human resource assistants are one of a group of occupations common to social assistance. Include six counseling specialty occupations and four social work occupations as work common to social assistance. Social and human resource assistants are the lowest paid of social assistance occupations. Like many other jobs in education and health care that have aide or assistant in their job titles social and human resource assistants do the time consuming parts of coordinating and delivering services or treatments to clients in order to save time for higher paid professional staff. However, licensing and certification for most social service occupations, especially social work, are less severe than health care. For this reason, social and human resource assistants, especially those with BA degrees, should explore possibilities for advancement once they are familiar with the work.
National employment as Social and Human Service Assistants reached 359,860 as of 2011. Jobs are up by an average of 8,995 a year since 2000 with a growth rate far above the national average. In the recently updated BLS Education and Training Classification assignments for social and human service assistants list high school diploma or equivalent as the entry level education minimum, none for work experience in a related occupation and short term on the job training up to a month as necessary preparation to do the work.
However, survey data percentages are published for the social and human service assistant occupation. Survey results show an educational distribution of 2.4 percent of social and human service assistants have less than a high school degree, 14.4 percent have a high school degree, 20.9 percent have some college, but no degree, 9.5 percent have an associate’s degree, 37.9 percent have a baccalaureate degree, 13.5 percent have a master’s degree and 1.4 percent have a doctorate degree.
Job growth is not the only measure of new hiring. Job openings equal job growth and the number of net replacements. Net replacements are people who permanently leave an occupation for another occupation or retirement and must be replaced before there can be any job growth. Job openings for Social and Human Service Assistants have been averaging around 12,800 per year in recent years.
The basic wage data from the BLS occupational employment survey includes a wage distribution. Averages are not used much in wage data. A few high wages pull up the average and make it unrepresentative. Instead a distribution range of wages is published with the 10th, 25th, median, 75th, and 90th percentiles of wages. A 10th percentile wage means 10 percent working in this job have wages equal to or less than the 10th percentile wage and so on. Annual wages are converted to hourly wages by dividing annual by 2,080.
The entry wage in the 10th percentile for Social and Human Service Assistants is reported as $19,180 in 2011. The 25th percentile wage equals $22, 930. The median wage is $28,740, the 75th percentile wage equals $36,440 and the 90th percentile wage is $45,710. Yearly reported wage increases barely keep up with inflation across the whole salary distribution. Buying remains about the same for the past decade.
Monday, April 9, 2012
Wisconsin Jobs for 2011 and 2010
On April 2nd a year ago I wrote a 600 word piece on Wisconsin jobs through 2010. At the time Governor Walker delighted attacking and taunting state employees, but I recall part of his taunt was “I will create jobs in the private sector.” In 2010 the monthly average of statewide jobs was down 15.3 thousand from 2009. In 2011 the monthly average of statewide employment was up 11.9 thousand from 2010, not enough to replace the prior year’s losses and still 93 thousand jobs below the statewide average for 2000.
The 2011 Wisconsin increase was 40th of the 50 states and the District of Columbia. An increase of 11.9 thousand new jobs is an annual growth rate of .44 percent, less than half the national average. Alabama, Mississippi and Arkansas actually lost jobs as did Missouri and Montana, but none of the losers have as many jobs as Wisconsin. Utah with only 1.2 million statewide jobs managed to create more than 25 thousand new jobs. For a state like Wisconsin with 2.7 million jobs the 2011 increase was measly at best.
In the national economy three sub sectors of durable goods manufacturing in fabricated metals, machinery and automobiles generated a little over 200 thousand new jobs. Wisconsin was able to ride the wave of national increase by picking up 11 thousand durable goods manufacturing jobs with 9 thousand of the jobs in fabricated metals and machinery. Other manufacturing in Wisconsin nudged upward but with barely a thousand new jobs.
Otherwise there is not much good news to report on Wisconsin jobs. Construction employment dropped 4 thousand jobs with declines across all three construction sub sectors: building construction, heavy and civil engineering including highway construction and specialty trade contractors. Wisconsin construction employment in 2011 dropped to 3.3 percent of statewide employment. Even though construction employment is down in the national economy construction has 4.2 percent of national establishment jobs.
Private sector services did a little better with a net increase of 10.6 thousand jobs, but 6.9 thousand of the new jobs were in employment services and from temporary help services. Government employment was down 6.8 thousand with 2.2 thousand of the lost jobs in the public elementary and secondary schools.
The loss of government jobs pulled the annual growth rate in service employment down to .17 percent compared to 1.08 percent in the national economy. Private sector service jobs that exclude government losses did a little better at .6 percent a year but that was a third of the national growth rate in this category, which was 1.79 percent.
Lost service jobs in Wisconsin for 2011 covered a broad spectrum of industries in transportation, utilities, information services that include publishing, broadcasting, phone and Internet, along with losses in financial services in banking, credit, real estate, arts-entertainment-recreation, accommodations, restaurants, personal services like salons and laundries, and non-profit membership associations. Restaurants?
The total of losses in the private service sectors was a modest 6.8 thousand for the year, but Governor Walker promised more jobs, not less. Even though employment services including temporary help services added 6.9 thousand jobs, these jobs are part of a larger sub sector called administrative support services that includes services like telemarketing, security services, credit bureaus, janitorial and landscaping services and a few more. After excluding jobs from employment services and temporary help services the remaining support services lost jobs in 2011.
Wisconsin service sectors with more jobs had token gains and generally at growth rates well below the national average. For example, wholesale and retail trade added 2.4 thousand jobs in 2011, but that was a growth rate of .58 percent a year compared to 1.40 percent in the national economy. Health care employment inched up 3 thousand jobs, but here again the Wisconsin increase represents a growth rate of .83 percent when the national economy did much better at 1.63 percent.
Professional services like the law, accounting, computer design continues to be a smaller share of Wisconsin jobs than the national economy: 3.3 percent for Wisconsin, almost 5.9 percent nationally. Wisconsin added 1.6 thousand professional jobs in 2011 at an annual growth rate of 1.75 percent a year, but the same jobs were increasing at 3.36 percent a year in the national economy.
One other Wisconsin service sector picked up 3 thousand jobs, which came in a service sector called management-of-companies. This sector results from the use of establishments to report job data because a firm may have many establishments at different locations where some establishments within the firm might be just head offices or administrative offices. Unfortunately the management sub sector is a small sector even though the increase here is a little above the national growth rate.
Based on the Bureau of Labor Statistics data cited above, the private sector job performance equals failure on the governor’s private sector pledge to create jobs. Job gains in manufacturing give optimists a reason to feel better than last year, but Wisconsin depends on manufacturing for 16 percent of its jobs, which makes it vulnerable to changes in the national recovery. The poor performance in construction and private sector services does not suggest Wisconsin manufacturing will be able to pull the rest of the economy along.
Remove the 6.9 thousand new jobs from employment services and the 6.8 thousand jobs lost from government service and the net private service sector increase comes to 3.7 thousand jobs for all of 2011. If Wisconsin private service sector job growth equaled the national average, Wisconsin would have had 20.5 thousand more private sector service jobs in addition to the manufacturing gains.
Being somewhat acquainted with the vitriol and class divisions in Wisconsin politics I wonder if there are more than a few voters hoping jobs will decline. Those people will vote for Governor Walker, but the Wisconsin voters who work should remember that neighboring Minnesota, Illinois, Indiana and Michigan all did significantly better than Wisconsin on jobs in 2011.
The 2011 Wisconsin increase was 40th of the 50 states and the District of Columbia. An increase of 11.9 thousand new jobs is an annual growth rate of .44 percent, less than half the national average. Alabama, Mississippi and Arkansas actually lost jobs as did Missouri and Montana, but none of the losers have as many jobs as Wisconsin. Utah with only 1.2 million statewide jobs managed to create more than 25 thousand new jobs. For a state like Wisconsin with 2.7 million jobs the 2011 increase was measly at best.
In the national economy three sub sectors of durable goods manufacturing in fabricated metals, machinery and automobiles generated a little over 200 thousand new jobs. Wisconsin was able to ride the wave of national increase by picking up 11 thousand durable goods manufacturing jobs with 9 thousand of the jobs in fabricated metals and machinery. Other manufacturing in Wisconsin nudged upward but with barely a thousand new jobs.
Otherwise there is not much good news to report on Wisconsin jobs. Construction employment dropped 4 thousand jobs with declines across all three construction sub sectors: building construction, heavy and civil engineering including highway construction and specialty trade contractors. Wisconsin construction employment in 2011 dropped to 3.3 percent of statewide employment. Even though construction employment is down in the national economy construction has 4.2 percent of national establishment jobs.
Private sector services did a little better with a net increase of 10.6 thousand jobs, but 6.9 thousand of the new jobs were in employment services and from temporary help services. Government employment was down 6.8 thousand with 2.2 thousand of the lost jobs in the public elementary and secondary schools.
The loss of government jobs pulled the annual growth rate in service employment down to .17 percent compared to 1.08 percent in the national economy. Private sector service jobs that exclude government losses did a little better at .6 percent a year but that was a third of the national growth rate in this category, which was 1.79 percent.
Lost service jobs in Wisconsin for 2011 covered a broad spectrum of industries in transportation, utilities, information services that include publishing, broadcasting, phone and Internet, along with losses in financial services in banking, credit, real estate, arts-entertainment-recreation, accommodations, restaurants, personal services like salons and laundries, and non-profit membership associations. Restaurants?
The total of losses in the private service sectors was a modest 6.8 thousand for the year, but Governor Walker promised more jobs, not less. Even though employment services including temporary help services added 6.9 thousand jobs, these jobs are part of a larger sub sector called administrative support services that includes services like telemarketing, security services, credit bureaus, janitorial and landscaping services and a few more. After excluding jobs from employment services and temporary help services the remaining support services lost jobs in 2011.
Wisconsin service sectors with more jobs had token gains and generally at growth rates well below the national average. For example, wholesale and retail trade added 2.4 thousand jobs in 2011, but that was a growth rate of .58 percent a year compared to 1.40 percent in the national economy. Health care employment inched up 3 thousand jobs, but here again the Wisconsin increase represents a growth rate of .83 percent when the national economy did much better at 1.63 percent.
Professional services like the law, accounting, computer design continues to be a smaller share of Wisconsin jobs than the national economy: 3.3 percent for Wisconsin, almost 5.9 percent nationally. Wisconsin added 1.6 thousand professional jobs in 2011 at an annual growth rate of 1.75 percent a year, but the same jobs were increasing at 3.36 percent a year in the national economy.
One other Wisconsin service sector picked up 3 thousand jobs, which came in a service sector called management-of-companies. This sector results from the use of establishments to report job data because a firm may have many establishments at different locations where some establishments within the firm might be just head offices or administrative offices. Unfortunately the management sub sector is a small sector even though the increase here is a little above the national growth rate.
Based on the Bureau of Labor Statistics data cited above, the private sector job performance equals failure on the governor’s private sector pledge to create jobs. Job gains in manufacturing give optimists a reason to feel better than last year, but Wisconsin depends on manufacturing for 16 percent of its jobs, which makes it vulnerable to changes in the national recovery. The poor performance in construction and private sector services does not suggest Wisconsin manufacturing will be able to pull the rest of the economy along.
Remove the 6.9 thousand new jobs from employment services and the 6.8 thousand jobs lost from government service and the net private service sector increase comes to 3.7 thousand jobs for all of 2011. If Wisconsin private service sector job growth equaled the national average, Wisconsin would have had 20.5 thousand more private sector service jobs in addition to the manufacturing gains.
Being somewhat acquainted with the vitriol and class divisions in Wisconsin politics I wonder if there are more than a few voters hoping jobs will decline. Those people will vote for Governor Walker, but the Wisconsin voters who work should remember that neighboring Minnesota, Illinois, Indiana and Michigan all did significantly better than Wisconsin on jobs in 2011.
Saturday, January 28, 2012
Wages and the Wal-Mart Effect
Wal-Mart has spawned a cottage industry in books and articles about Wal-Mart stores and what’s wrong with them for America. Discussion varies among many topics but low wages and high turnover get plenty of attention. Allow me to quote from a 2009 addition to the list of Wal-Mart books: the Retail Revolution by Nelson Lichtenstein. note(1) A Wal-Mart exec is quoted: “It’s hard to believe but turnover drops millions of dollars to the bottom line in cost savings for the company. When an experienced associate leaves the company he or she is replaced by an entry level associate at a lower wage. Turnover of associates, for this reason, actually appears from an expense standpoint, to be a competitive advantage.”
Nearly ten million people work as cashiers, retail salespersons, and first line supervisors/managers of retail sales workers. More than 80 percent of these three jobs are in the retail sector. Together they make up 6.8 percent of America’s jobs in 2010. (2)
The effect on wages from high turnover varies by occupation and industry. In the retail industry high turnover generates a specific pattern of wage compression for jobs like cashier and retail salesperson: lower wage employees replace higher wage employees. The pattern is not unique to Wal-Mart, but given its size, employment totals and the admission that turnover helps profit, it is a specific pattern of wage changes that deserves the title, Wal-Mart Effect.
The Wal-Mart Effect can be defined and illustrated using data from the Occupational Employment Survey published annually by Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), U. S. Department of Labor. BLS Survey data partitions occupational wages at five percentile ranks: 10th, 25th, median, 75th and 90th percentiles. For example, the 10th percentile wage rate for an occupation is the wage where 10 percent of all workers earn that amount or less and where 90 percent of all workers earn that amount or more. For cashiers in Table I the 10th percentile wage of $12,200 in 2002 meaning 10 percent of America’s cashiers have annual earnings of $12,200 or less and 90 percent have annual earnings of $12,200 or more.
Table I – Cashiers
For cashiers the 10th percentile wage increased to $15,720 by 2010, a 28.9 percent increase in wages for the eight year period. The consumer price index increased by 21.1 percent in the period, which means the lowest paid cashiers got a 6.31 percent increase in inflation adjusted buying power.
Conversely, the 90th percentile wage of $22,810 in 2002 meaning 90 percent of America’s cashiers have annual earnings of $22,810 or less and 10 percent have annual earnings of $22,810 or more. The 90th percentile wage increased to $25,780 in 2010, a 13 percent increase. However, at the 90th percentile wage the increase fell well below the inflation rate, causing a 6.75 percent decrease in buying power for the highest paid cashiers.
The cashier example illustrates the Wal-Mart Effect which can be defined for any occupation where the lowest 25 percent of inflation adjusted wages increase over time as the highest 25 or 50 percent of inflation adjusted wages decrease over the same time period.
Cashiers had 3.3 million jobs in 2010, but wages for retail salespersons in Table II shows the Wal-Mart Effect for the nearly 4.2 million Americans working as retail salespersons. Table III shows the Wal-Mart Effect for more than 1.1 million first line supervisors/managers of retail workers.
Table II – Retail Salespersons
Table III - First-line supervisors/managers of retail sales workers
What happens to the individuals who leave Wal-Mart or the retail industry is not known. We can hope some of them got higher paying jobs in another occupation, but what happens to individuals is irrelevant to what is certain for jobs: the Wal-Mart Effect degrades an occupation and its jobs, whoever holds them. In the eight year period the highest paid of the 3.1 million cashiers lost buying power to the lowest paid cashiers as wages compressed into a narrower distribution of real wages.
The Wal-Mart Effect depends partly on company policy. The more companies do as Wal-Mart does and actively pursue high turnover as a profitable strategy the more likely wages will show the Wal-Mart Effect. Occupations needing college degree skills or other specialized occupational skills tend to be more resistant to the Wal-Mart Effect. Increasing or stable employment also makes it harder for an employer to eliminate more experienced staff. However, skills are not a guarantee because one of the worst examples of the Wal-Mart Effect occurs in the airline industry where Pilots, Co-pilots and Flight Engineers have lost 20 thousand jobs over the last decade and low paid pilots have replaced high paid pilots by the thousand.
Table IV shows the distribution of wages for 1.5 million Elementary School Teachers, Except Special Education, an occupation resistant to the Wal-Mart Effect. Wages in education typically come from a predetermined salary scale published by the local School Board. Individual pay is determined from a grid or spreadsheet of pay steps that depend on education and years of experience. Pay scale pay in education reflects the opinion that teachers can be trusted to improve with experience and education.
Table IV – Elementary School Teachers, Except Special Education
Recent media reports on education incorporate increasing amounts of coverage from critics who attack teachers and teaching. Growing opinion from outside of teaching expect teachers to produce a quality product measured by student test scores. Manufactured products fail as a result of defective materials and workmanship and so the logic follows that students must fail from defective teaching and poor teachers.
The solution reformers demand will adjust teacher salary in proportion to student test scores. Critics emphasize their concern for education, but a merit pay plan puts teacher pay into competition, promotes higher turnover, and increases the chances school districts will cut their budgets with Wal-Mart Effect savings.
Pay scales act as a partial substitute for seniority rules that require layoffs to be in reverse order of years of service. Seniority rules usually have to be negotiated within collective bargaining agreements, but where pay scales have general acceptance then job skills and time on the job make an occupation resistant to the Wal-Mart Effect. The political attack on unions increases the chance that more occupations will show Wal-Mart Effects.
Of the more than 800 occupations reported in the Occupational Employment Survey 68 show the Wal-Mart Effect from 2002 to 2010. Regrettably the job count in these 68 occupations total 23.4 million, mostly concentrated in three occupational categories: sales and related occupations, food preparation and serving occupations, and personal service occupations.
Over 90 percent of retail sales workers including supervisors of sales workers show the Wal-Mart Effect along with almost half of food service workers. Waiters and waitresses escaped Wal-Mart Effect changes probably because they have the best access to customers and customer tips. In restaurant and food service occupations like fast food cooks, dishwashers, and serving staff like counter attendants and hosts and hostesses at restaurants, lounges, and coffee shops turnover helped replace higher wage jobs with lower wage jobs. Among personal service occupations a little over 40 percent show Wal-Mart Effect wage changes, which include hairstylists, barbers, and especially 686 thousand personal and home care aides where turnover can be expected to be high.
In a 2004 article in Workforce Management author David Shuit reported Wal-Mart turnover of 600,000 to 700,000 a year. (3) It is an amazing number for a company that analysts like to describe in superlative terms. It makes Wal-Mart unrivaled in its ability to convert wages to profit by promoting high turnover, which is why the consequence for wages should be known as the Wal-Mart Effect
.
------
(1) Nelson Lichtenstein, The Retail Revolution: How Wal-Mart Created a Brave New World of Business (New York, NY: Piccador, A metropolitan book Henry Holt and Company, 2009) page 150
(2) Occupational Employment Survey, United States Department of Labor, 2002, 2010.
(3) Douglas P. Shuit, “People Problems in Every Aisle,” Workforce Management, February 2004, pp. 27-34
Nearly ten million people work as cashiers, retail salespersons, and first line supervisors/managers of retail sales workers. More than 80 percent of these three jobs are in the retail sector. Together they make up 6.8 percent of America’s jobs in 2010. (2)
The effect on wages from high turnover varies by occupation and industry. In the retail industry high turnover generates a specific pattern of wage compression for jobs like cashier and retail salesperson: lower wage employees replace higher wage employees. The pattern is not unique to Wal-Mart, but given its size, employment totals and the admission that turnover helps profit, it is a specific pattern of wage changes that deserves the title, Wal-Mart Effect.
The Wal-Mart Effect can be defined and illustrated using data from the Occupational Employment Survey published annually by Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), U. S. Department of Labor. BLS Survey data partitions occupational wages at five percentile ranks: 10th, 25th, median, 75th and 90th percentiles. For example, the 10th percentile wage rate for an occupation is the wage where 10 percent of all workers earn that amount or less and where 90 percent of all workers earn that amount or more. For cashiers in Table I the 10th percentile wage of $12,200 in 2002 meaning 10 percent of America’s cashiers have annual earnings of $12,200 or less and 90 percent have annual earnings of $12,200 or more.
Table I – Cashiers
For cashiers the 10th percentile wage increased to $15,720 by 2010, a 28.9 percent increase in wages for the eight year period. The consumer price index increased by 21.1 percent in the period, which means the lowest paid cashiers got a 6.31 percent increase in inflation adjusted buying power.
Conversely, the 90th percentile wage of $22,810 in 2002 meaning 90 percent of America’s cashiers have annual earnings of $22,810 or less and 10 percent have annual earnings of $22,810 or more. The 90th percentile wage increased to $25,780 in 2010, a 13 percent increase. However, at the 90th percentile wage the increase fell well below the inflation rate, causing a 6.75 percent decrease in buying power for the highest paid cashiers.
The cashier example illustrates the Wal-Mart Effect which can be defined for any occupation where the lowest 25 percent of inflation adjusted wages increase over time as the highest 25 or 50 percent of inflation adjusted wages decrease over the same time period.
Cashiers had 3.3 million jobs in 2010, but wages for retail salespersons in Table II shows the Wal-Mart Effect for the nearly 4.2 million Americans working as retail salespersons. Table III shows the Wal-Mart Effect for more than 1.1 million first line supervisors/managers of retail workers.
Table II – Retail Salespersons
Table III - First-line supervisors/managers of retail sales workers
What happens to the individuals who leave Wal-Mart or the retail industry is not known. We can hope some of them got higher paying jobs in another occupation, but what happens to individuals is irrelevant to what is certain for jobs: the Wal-Mart Effect degrades an occupation and its jobs, whoever holds them. In the eight year period the highest paid of the 3.1 million cashiers lost buying power to the lowest paid cashiers as wages compressed into a narrower distribution of real wages.
The Wal-Mart Effect depends partly on company policy. The more companies do as Wal-Mart does and actively pursue high turnover as a profitable strategy the more likely wages will show the Wal-Mart Effect. Occupations needing college degree skills or other specialized occupational skills tend to be more resistant to the Wal-Mart Effect. Increasing or stable employment also makes it harder for an employer to eliminate more experienced staff. However, skills are not a guarantee because one of the worst examples of the Wal-Mart Effect occurs in the airline industry where Pilots, Co-pilots and Flight Engineers have lost 20 thousand jobs over the last decade and low paid pilots have replaced high paid pilots by the thousand.
Table IV shows the distribution of wages for 1.5 million Elementary School Teachers, Except Special Education, an occupation resistant to the Wal-Mart Effect. Wages in education typically come from a predetermined salary scale published by the local School Board. Individual pay is determined from a grid or spreadsheet of pay steps that depend on education and years of experience. Pay scale pay in education reflects the opinion that teachers can be trusted to improve with experience and education.
Table IV – Elementary School Teachers, Except Special Education
Recent media reports on education incorporate increasing amounts of coverage from critics who attack teachers and teaching. Growing opinion from outside of teaching expect teachers to produce a quality product measured by student test scores. Manufactured products fail as a result of defective materials and workmanship and so the logic follows that students must fail from defective teaching and poor teachers.
The solution reformers demand will adjust teacher salary in proportion to student test scores. Critics emphasize their concern for education, but a merit pay plan puts teacher pay into competition, promotes higher turnover, and increases the chances school districts will cut their budgets with Wal-Mart Effect savings.
Pay scales act as a partial substitute for seniority rules that require layoffs to be in reverse order of years of service. Seniority rules usually have to be negotiated within collective bargaining agreements, but where pay scales have general acceptance then job skills and time on the job make an occupation resistant to the Wal-Mart Effect. The political attack on unions increases the chance that more occupations will show Wal-Mart Effects.
Of the more than 800 occupations reported in the Occupational Employment Survey 68 show the Wal-Mart Effect from 2002 to 2010. Regrettably the job count in these 68 occupations total 23.4 million, mostly concentrated in three occupational categories: sales and related occupations, food preparation and serving occupations, and personal service occupations.
Over 90 percent of retail sales workers including supervisors of sales workers show the Wal-Mart Effect along with almost half of food service workers. Waiters and waitresses escaped Wal-Mart Effect changes probably because they have the best access to customers and customer tips. In restaurant and food service occupations like fast food cooks, dishwashers, and serving staff like counter attendants and hosts and hostesses at restaurants, lounges, and coffee shops turnover helped replace higher wage jobs with lower wage jobs. Among personal service occupations a little over 40 percent show Wal-Mart Effect wage changes, which include hairstylists, barbers, and especially 686 thousand personal and home care aides where turnover can be expected to be high.
In a 2004 article in Workforce Management author David Shuit reported Wal-Mart turnover of 600,000 to 700,000 a year. (3) It is an amazing number for a company that analysts like to describe in superlative terms. It makes Wal-Mart unrivaled in its ability to convert wages to profit by promoting high turnover, which is why the consequence for wages should be known as the Wal-Mart Effect
.
------
(1) Nelson Lichtenstein, The Retail Revolution: How Wal-Mart Created a Brave New World of Business (New York, NY: Piccador, A metropolitan book Henry Holt and Company, 2009) page 150
(2) Occupational Employment Survey, United States Department of Labor, 2002, 2010.
(3) Douglas P. Shuit, “People Problems in Every Aisle,” Workforce Management, February 2004, pp. 27-34
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