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In reply to the discussion: STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Wednesday, 21 August 2013 [View all]Demeter
(85,373 posts)9. Abracadabra: You’re a Part-Timer! How Corp. America Used Great Recession to Turn Good Jobs Into Bad
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article35920.htm
By Barbara Garson
Watch closely: Im about to demystify the sleight-of-hand by which good jobs were transformed into bad jobs, full-time workers with benefits into freelancers with nothing, during the dark days of the Great Recession. First, be aware of what a weird economic downturn and recovery this has been. From the end of an average American recession, it ordinarily takes slightly less than a year to reach or surpass the previous employment peak. But in June 2013 -- four full years after the official end of the Great Recession -- we had recovered only 6.6 million jobs, or just three-quarters of the 8.7 million jobs we lost. Heres the truly mysterious aspect of this recovery: 21% of the jobs lost during the Great Recession were low wage, meaning they paid $13.83 an hour or less. But 58% of the jobs regained fall into that category. A common explanation for that startling statistic is that the bad jobs are coming back first and the good jobs will follow. But let me suggest another explanation: the good jobs are here among us right now -- its just their wages, their benefits, and the long-term security that have vanished.
Consider the experiences of two workers I initially interviewed for my book Down the Up Escalator: How the 99% Live in the Great Recession and youll see just how some companies used the recession to accomplish this magicians disappearing trick.
Heres how the same magic trick works a little higher up the food chain.
The Good Old Switcheroo
When Americas industrial workers were hit hard in the 1970s and 1980s, the excuse for breaking their unions, lowering their wages, and outsourcing their work was that we had to compete with foreign manufacturers. But not to worry, it was then suggested, there might be tough times ahead for a few blue-collar troglodytes who couldnt be retrained, but the rest of us would soon be data manipulators in a booming postindustrial society. Feldman is as postindustrial as you can get and his former company doesnt even compete with foreign firms. It seems, though, that corporate headquarters no longer needs excuses or explanations to make workers cheaper and more replaceable.
The recession itself certainly doesnt explain such job transformations. Traditionally, during recessions employers reduced hours or laid people off in a way that would enable them to reconstitute an experienced work force when business picked up. In the meantime, they competed on price and took less profit. As a result, the share of national income that went to owners and investors used to decline during such periods, while the share that went to workers actually rose. No longer. Inas and Gregs employers used the downturn to dump entire departments and reorganize themselves so that the same work, the same jobs, requiring the same skills, would henceforth, in good times and bad, be done by contingent workers. Many other companies seem to be doing the same thing. One sign of that: during the course of the Great Recession corporate profits went up by 25%-30%, while wages as a share of national income fell to their lowest point since that number began to be recorded after World War II.
According to the latest Labor Department figures, 65% of the jobs added to the economy in July 2013 were part-time. The average hourly wage fell slightly. Interpreters of those statistics will make it sound as though its simply a matter of factories firing and burger joints hiring. That, at least, would be a situation that could be reversed over time. If, however, golden jobs are being transmuted into lead by the reverse alchemy described in this piece, then theyre not coming back gradually, certainly not without a growing labor movement and a fight.
Barbara Garson is the author of a series of books describing American working lives at historical turning points, including All the Livelong Day (1975), The Electronic Sweatshop (1988), and Money Makes the World Go Around (2001). Her new book is Down the Up Escalator: How the 99% Live in the Great Recession (Doubleday).
Note: "Ina Bromberg" and "Greg Feldman" are not the actual names of the two workers quoted in this piece.
By Barbara Garson
Watch closely: Im about to demystify the sleight-of-hand by which good jobs were transformed into bad jobs, full-time workers with benefits into freelancers with nothing, during the dark days of the Great Recession. First, be aware of what a weird economic downturn and recovery this has been. From the end of an average American recession, it ordinarily takes slightly less than a year to reach or surpass the previous employment peak. But in June 2013 -- four full years after the official end of the Great Recession -- we had recovered only 6.6 million jobs, or just three-quarters of the 8.7 million jobs we lost. Heres the truly mysterious aspect of this recovery: 21% of the jobs lost during the Great Recession were low wage, meaning they paid $13.83 an hour or less. But 58% of the jobs regained fall into that category. A common explanation for that startling statistic is that the bad jobs are coming back first and the good jobs will follow. But let me suggest another explanation: the good jobs are here among us right now -- its just their wages, their benefits, and the long-term security that have vanished.
Consider the experiences of two workers I initially interviewed for my book Down the Up Escalator: How the 99% Live in the Great Recession and youll see just how some companies used the recession to accomplish this magicians disappearing trick.
Freelance Nation
Ina Bromberg genuinely likes to outfit people. Trim and well dressed herself, Ina sells petites at the Madison Avenue flagship store of a designer brand boutique with several hundred outlets. Even I had heard of the label. I had to ask what its exact place in the fashion hierarchy was, though. We fall into a niche below Barneys-Bergdorf-Chanel, she explained.
In the course of a 20-year career, Ina, now in her sixties, had been the companys top-earning national sales associate more than once. Her loyal clients return each season saying, You know what I like. What have you got for me?
When I first met her during the Great Recession, however, her hours had been cut back. Theyve moved the entire sales staff onto flexible schedules, she explained. On Thursday, we are told what our schedule will be for the following week. When they told me my new hours that first week, it was down to ten. I said, Why dont you just lay me off? I can collect unemployment. And [my boss] said, No, no, it wont be this way every week.
Maybe this is their way of sharing the work in order to keep the experienced people till the recession is over, I suggested. That used to be standard practice during a downturn.
Ina didnt think so. She referred me to an article about her firm on a fashion website. Read the responses, she said. These are by people who worked in the office -- probably not anymore. They say that in some of the stores theyve taken all the full time people and made them part-time. And with that, theres no more sick days, no more vacation days, no more commissions for anyone. They say theyre going to do that to all the stores, even New York.
Do your managers claim that the short hours are just for the recession? I asked. Do they thank you for making sacrifices till business picks up?
Not that I ever heard, Ina answered. I think -- and Ive been saying this for a year and a half -- their ultimate goal is to have all part-time sales people working shifts of four-and-a-half hours. That way theyre not responsible for lunch, they have a lot of bodies, they pay no commissions, no benefits, and its a constant turnover. This is what I think they want even after the recession because, here she leaned in as though to reveal a secret, they havent stopped hiring people. She checked to see if I grasped the significance of that.
I did and so did her fellow saleswomen, but its hard to go job-hunting during a recession. While a few of the old professionals had already left, most were holding on, chewing over any bits of information they could pick up that might indicate managements intentions. In our store we know theyve continued the health benefits until March, Ina said. What will happen after is what were trying to find out.
Eventually, the company broke the suspense. Managers called the remaining full-timers into the office and gave them two choices. They could take a small severance package and collect unemployment or they could stay at truncated versions of their old jobs if they wished, but as part-timers with no benefits and no commissions. In a way, the company had made government unemployment benefits a part of its buyout package. They were saying, in effect: you go voluntarily and well agree that we laid you off.
Four years after the official end of the recession I interviewed Ina again. She was the only one of the former sales staff still working there. Her earnings were less than a quarter of what theyd been a few years earlier.
I can afford to retire, she assured me. In a way, I already am. I just like coming out of the house and seeing my regular customers. But everyone who had to support themselves left. All the new people are young, Ina complained. They have no commitment to the job. They skip days whenever they feel like it.
But why shouldnt they? she said suddenly, reversing her judgmental tone. It used to be if you missed a day, you missed a chance to earn commissions. It mattered. But at nine or ten dollars an hour, if they have something else to do they skip it.
The job is only worth it if youre a college student and the hours are a perfect fit for your schedule. If that changes the next term, they leave. And it doesnt seem to make a difference to the company. They treat employees like nothing now. I dont mean it has to be a family, but it isnt even a team.
I recently checked her companys website under careers and it was true; they were advertising for more than 70 sales assistants for their various North American stores. All but one of the positions was listed as part-time. The sole full time job happened to be in Canada.
In other words, under the shadow of the recession, the company hadnt sent jobs offshore or eliminated them. It had simply replaced decently paying full-time employment, including benefits, with low-wage, contingent employment without benefits. It had, that is, pulled the old switcheroo, turning good jobs into bad ones on premises.
Ina Bromberg genuinely likes to outfit people. Trim and well dressed herself, Ina sells petites at the Madison Avenue flagship store of a designer brand boutique with several hundred outlets. Even I had heard of the label. I had to ask what its exact place in the fashion hierarchy was, though. We fall into a niche below Barneys-Bergdorf-Chanel, she explained.
In the course of a 20-year career, Ina, now in her sixties, had been the companys top-earning national sales associate more than once. Her loyal clients return each season saying, You know what I like. What have you got for me?
When I first met her during the Great Recession, however, her hours had been cut back. Theyve moved the entire sales staff onto flexible schedules, she explained. On Thursday, we are told what our schedule will be for the following week. When they told me my new hours that first week, it was down to ten. I said, Why dont you just lay me off? I can collect unemployment. And [my boss] said, No, no, it wont be this way every week.
Maybe this is their way of sharing the work in order to keep the experienced people till the recession is over, I suggested. That used to be standard practice during a downturn.
Ina didnt think so. She referred me to an article about her firm on a fashion website. Read the responses, she said. These are by people who worked in the office -- probably not anymore. They say that in some of the stores theyve taken all the full time people and made them part-time. And with that, theres no more sick days, no more vacation days, no more commissions for anyone. They say theyre going to do that to all the stores, even New York.
Do your managers claim that the short hours are just for the recession? I asked. Do they thank you for making sacrifices till business picks up?
Not that I ever heard, Ina answered. I think -- and Ive been saying this for a year and a half -- their ultimate goal is to have all part-time sales people working shifts of four-and-a-half hours. That way theyre not responsible for lunch, they have a lot of bodies, they pay no commissions, no benefits, and its a constant turnover. This is what I think they want even after the recession because, here she leaned in as though to reveal a secret, they havent stopped hiring people. She checked to see if I grasped the significance of that.
I did and so did her fellow saleswomen, but its hard to go job-hunting during a recession. While a few of the old professionals had already left, most were holding on, chewing over any bits of information they could pick up that might indicate managements intentions. In our store we know theyve continued the health benefits until March, Ina said. What will happen after is what were trying to find out.
Eventually, the company broke the suspense. Managers called the remaining full-timers into the office and gave them two choices. They could take a small severance package and collect unemployment or they could stay at truncated versions of their old jobs if they wished, but as part-timers with no benefits and no commissions. In a way, the company had made government unemployment benefits a part of its buyout package. They were saying, in effect: you go voluntarily and well agree that we laid you off.
Four years after the official end of the recession I interviewed Ina again. She was the only one of the former sales staff still working there. Her earnings were less than a quarter of what theyd been a few years earlier.
I can afford to retire, she assured me. In a way, I already am. I just like coming out of the house and seeing my regular customers. But everyone who had to support themselves left. All the new people are young, Ina complained. They have no commitment to the job. They skip days whenever they feel like it.
But why shouldnt they? she said suddenly, reversing her judgmental tone. It used to be if you missed a day, you missed a chance to earn commissions. It mattered. But at nine or ten dollars an hour, if they have something else to do they skip it.
The job is only worth it if youre a college student and the hours are a perfect fit for your schedule. If that changes the next term, they leave. And it doesnt seem to make a difference to the company. They treat employees like nothing now. I dont mean it has to be a family, but it isnt even a team.
I recently checked her companys website under careers and it was true; they were advertising for more than 70 sales assistants for their various North American stores. All but one of the positions was listed as part-time. The sole full time job happened to be in Canada.
In other words, under the shadow of the recession, the company hadnt sent jobs offshore or eliminated them. It had simply replaced decently paying full-time employment, including benefits, with low-wage, contingent employment without benefits. It had, that is, pulled the old switcheroo, turning good jobs into bad ones on premises.
Heres how the same magic trick works a little higher up the food chain.
Entering the Freelance Life
Greg Feldman was a full-time professional doing computer graphics for an educational publisher which produces test preparation materials for school districts. One day during the recession, his company laid off some 20 staffers including him. As far as I can tell, its business wasnt declining. (Standardized test prep must be one of the last things desperate school districts cut.)
When I got home I went into panic mode, Feldman remembered. I said I better redo my resume before the weekend. And I did. But there were a couple of openings I could have applied for that day -- one full time, one long-term temp. But I waited till after the weekend to send it in. That was in November [2008] and this is February [2009]. Im on the websites every day and I havent come across any other regular staff positions since those two.
Four years later Feldman was piecing together his living by combining a steady but low-paying part-time job with freelance gigs. He still considers himself unemployed. Whenever we speak he enumerates the new computer graphics programs hes mastered and asks me about job leads.
But is Feldman really unemployed by post-recession standards? He may not have a full-time job with his old company, but neither does just about anyone else who did the work he used to do for them. Its by no means impossible, I once suggested to Feldman, that he himself might wind up working for his old firm through a subcontractor.
Possible but not likely, he answered. What I heard is that they send that work overseas now.
Greg Feldman was a full-time professional doing computer graphics for an educational publisher which produces test preparation materials for school districts. One day during the recession, his company laid off some 20 staffers including him. As far as I can tell, its business wasnt declining. (Standardized test prep must be one of the last things desperate school districts cut.)
When I got home I went into panic mode, Feldman remembered. I said I better redo my resume before the weekend. And I did. But there were a couple of openings I could have applied for that day -- one full time, one long-term temp. But I waited till after the weekend to send it in. That was in November [2008] and this is February [2009]. Im on the websites every day and I havent come across any other regular staff positions since those two.
Four years later Feldman was piecing together his living by combining a steady but low-paying part-time job with freelance gigs. He still considers himself unemployed. Whenever we speak he enumerates the new computer graphics programs hes mastered and asks me about job leads.
But is Feldman really unemployed by post-recession standards? He may not have a full-time job with his old company, but neither does just about anyone else who did the work he used to do for them. Its by no means impossible, I once suggested to Feldman, that he himself might wind up working for his old firm through a subcontractor.
Possible but not likely, he answered. What I heard is that they send that work overseas now.
The Good Old Switcheroo
When Americas industrial workers were hit hard in the 1970s and 1980s, the excuse for breaking their unions, lowering their wages, and outsourcing their work was that we had to compete with foreign manufacturers. But not to worry, it was then suggested, there might be tough times ahead for a few blue-collar troglodytes who couldnt be retrained, but the rest of us would soon be data manipulators in a booming postindustrial society. Feldman is as postindustrial as you can get and his former company doesnt even compete with foreign firms. It seems, though, that corporate headquarters no longer needs excuses or explanations to make workers cheaper and more replaceable.
The recession itself certainly doesnt explain such job transformations. Traditionally, during recessions employers reduced hours or laid people off in a way that would enable them to reconstitute an experienced work force when business picked up. In the meantime, they competed on price and took less profit. As a result, the share of national income that went to owners and investors used to decline during such periods, while the share that went to workers actually rose. No longer. Inas and Gregs employers used the downturn to dump entire departments and reorganize themselves so that the same work, the same jobs, requiring the same skills, would henceforth, in good times and bad, be done by contingent workers. Many other companies seem to be doing the same thing. One sign of that: during the course of the Great Recession corporate profits went up by 25%-30%, while wages as a share of national income fell to their lowest point since that number began to be recorded after World War II.
According to the latest Labor Department figures, 65% of the jobs added to the economy in July 2013 were part-time. The average hourly wage fell slightly. Interpreters of those statistics will make it sound as though its simply a matter of factories firing and burger joints hiring. That, at least, would be a situation that could be reversed over time. If, however, golden jobs are being transmuted into lead by the reverse alchemy described in this piece, then theyre not coming back gradually, certainly not without a growing labor movement and a fight.
I checked back recently with Ina Bromberg to see if anything had changed for the saleswomen in her store as the nation crawled into whats now called recovery.
The hours are creeping back up, she said, and pointed to an irony. When they started all this they told us that short shifts make us more efficient. Now, theyre letting a few people work, six, seven, even eight hours some days.
I asked if benefits and commission were also creeping back.
Of course not! she answered.
Its sad in a way, Ina mused. If one of these young women gets eight hours for a while, shell think she has a regular job. None of them can remember what a regular job was like.
The hours are creeping back up, she said, and pointed to an irony. When they started all this they told us that short shifts make us more efficient. Now, theyre letting a few people work, six, seven, even eight hours some days.
I asked if benefits and commission were also creeping back.
Of course not! she answered.
Its sad in a way, Ina mused. If one of these young women gets eight hours for a while, shell think she has a regular job. None of them can remember what a regular job was like.
Barbara Garson is the author of a series of books describing American working lives at historical turning points, including All the Livelong Day (1975), The Electronic Sweatshop (1988), and Money Makes the World Go Around (2001). Her new book is Down the Up Escalator: How the 99% Live in the Great Recession (Doubleday).
Note: "Ina Bromberg" and "Greg Feldman" are not the actual names of the two workers quoted in this piece.
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