The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly: Job Quality in the United States over the Three Most Recent Business Cycles

Publication Date:

Publisher: Center for Economic and Policy Research

Author(s): John Schmitt

Research Area: Labor

Keywords: Hourly earnings; Health insurance; Pension

Type: Report

Coverage: United States

Abstract:

This report finds that the US economy has created fewer good jobs in the 2000s than was the case over comparable periods in the 1980s and 1990s. The report analyzed annual data from the March Current Population Survey for the years 1979 through 2006 and shows that while the current business cycle has seen an increase in the share of jobs that pay at least $17 an hour, this gain has been more than offset by a decrease in the share of jobs that offer employer-provided health insurance (down 3.1 percent points) and pension coverage (down 4.9 percentage points).