Washington — Secretary of Labor Alexis M. Herman has a slogan for all workers in these times: Be skilled, not stuck.
She emphasized to us the other day that, of the 19 million new jobs created during this administration, 1 million were in high-technology fields. The average high-tech job pays 78 percent more than the average non-high-tech job: $53,000 compared to $30,000.
(To understand her point more clearly, consider this: When Russell Kelly founded Kelly Girls Services in 1946, virtually all of his income came from placing secretaries and clericals in temporary jobs. Today, his firm, which also includes leasing and contracting in 19 countries, generates 20 percent of its revenues from professional and technical placements, including biologists, lawyers, accountants, chemists and computer analysts.)
Secretary Herman stresses education as the American worker's best way to gain a full share in the high-tech future. Her BLS statistics are impressive, and worrisome:
No. 1: Usual weekly earnings for full-time workers 25 and over (in 1998 dollars) are down from 1979 to 1998 for all but college graduates.
a. Those with less than a high school diploma went from $462 to $337.
b. Those with high school diplomas but no college went from $548 to $479.
c. Those with some college or an associate degree went from $621 to $558.
d. College graduates rose from $758 to $821.
No. 2: The 20 occupations with the highest earnings all require at least a bachelor's degree, and these occupations are growing twice as fast as others.
No. 3: Two out of three high-school graduates are entering college this fall. But not all have the same opportunity. Fewer than 10 percent of adults with disabilities graduate from college, the same rate for the general population 30 years ago.
No. 4: High-school graduation rates for African-Americans and whites were statistically on a par in 1997 for the first time, at 86 percent and 88 percent, respectively. Asian-Americans have the highest high-school graduation rate, more than 90 percent. Hispanic graduation rates are far lower, at 62 percent.
Even more disturbing is Secretary Herman's statistic showing more than 9 million working Americans still live in poverty in the world's richest, most technically advanced nation. One-quarter of these work full-time and year-round. Nearly 60 percent are women, with minority women more than twice as likely to be poor as white women. Almost 3 million are in families with children under age 6.
Another saddening effect of our booming, shifting economy is the loss of family time. "Ozzie and Harriet are demographic dinosaurs," Secretary Herman says, referring to the idealized mom and dad of early TV. "Nearly three out of four women with children are in the workforce."
This means often that neither parent is home when the children arrive from school or the daycare center. The time that married women with children spend working outside the home has nearly doubled in 30 years. Secretary Herman says this translates to 22 fewer hours a week that families can spend with the children.
And then there are the old folks. In 1996, almost 20 percent of American households provided informal care to a relative or friend age 50 or older. Secretary Herman estimates this percentage will more than double in the next five years as the population ages. By 2050, the number of older Americans will double, and then some.
-- Jack Anderson and Douglas Cohn are columnists for United Feature Syndicate.
No comments
Commenting is turned off for this story.