Three Polls Find Workers Sensing Deep Pessimism

[spindrifter]

By STEVEN GREENHOUSE
Published: August 31, 2006
Three new opinion polls released yesterday found deep pessimism among American workers, with most saying that wages were not keeping pace with inflation and that workers were worse off in many ways than a generation ago.

The Pew Research Center found in a survey of 2,003 adults completed last month that an overwhelming majority said workers had less job security and faced more on-the-job stress than 20 or 30 years ago.

The nonpartisan Pew center, said, “The public thinks that workers were better off a generation ago than they are now on every key dimension of worker life — be it wages, benefits, retirement plans, on-the-job stress, the loyalty they are shown by employers or the need to regularly upgrade work skills.”

In a poll of 803 registered voters commissioned by the A.F.L.-C.I.O., Peter D. Hart Research found that 55 percent said their incomes were not keeping up with inflation, 33 percent said their incomes were keeping even and 9 percent said their incomes were outpacing inflation.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/31/us/31labor.html

[mike_c]

1. "worse off than a generation ago...."

This one really hits home for me. I'm a tenured professor at a California State University. I have a job that, in my parents generation meant "set for life." I mean, no one ever got rich doing this, but it's a good profession. My colleagues who retired with 25-35 years service several years ago were in pretty decent shape. I wonder about homelessness when I retire, on the other hand. I live *almost* month to month, cannot afford to buy a home in my community-- not even close-- and worry about the impact of every unexpected expense. I realise this is the norm for most folks and I've lived pretty damn close to the edge all my life, but like I said, if the standard is the condition of folks "a generation ago" I am MUCH worse off than my colleagues from the 1965-1995 or so cycle. Much worse off.

[Omaha Steve]

2. I agree

Great post. Right on target.