DN Editorial: The facts behind the job-growth numbers

THE LABOR Department reported last week that there was an increase of 216,000 jobs last month - and the unemployment rate had sunk to 8.8 percent.

So are happy days here again?

We wouldn't tear open the confetti.

Even without the looming shutdown of the federal government, state cutbacks are sure to slow job growth. There are signs that it's already starting. Although last month's figures showed an increase of 230,000 jobs in the private sector, the gain was reduced by the loss of 14,000 government jobs.

And yes, government jobs are real jobs done by real people with real families who have real mortgages and need real health care - and whose unemployment is sure to have a ripple effect throughout the private-sector economy.

Compared with most other states, Pennsylvania is doing well: The commonwealth ranks seventh in the nation, adding 106,800 jobs from February 2010 to February 2011, a 1.9 percent increase, with mining and logging jobs registering the biggest gain.

But even if overall job growth continues, there are troubling signs that the job categories that are growing nationwide - in retail, health care and hospitality - don't pay nearly enough to provide true economic security.

In a recent study, a national nonprofit organization called Wider Opportunities for Women calculated a household's basic living expenses - including food, shelter, health care, child care and transportation (as well as enough savings to tide households over a brief illness or short-term unemployment). It created a national Basic Economic Security Tables Index, which found that most of America's future jobs won't provide anywhere near enough money to cover them.

The index says that single workers need $30,012 to cover basic expenses - that is, nearly twice the federal minimum wage, $7.25 an hour ($15,080 for 40 hours, 52 weeks a year). According to the study, single parents with two children need an income of $57,756 - $27 an hour - to support two children; two-income families need $67,920.

Compare: The average hourly wage in the United States is about $23 and the poverty line for a family of three is $18,530.

So the middle class in America is actually the "working poor."

And, unless we come up with a real plan to spur the creation of jobs that actually support a middle-class lifestyle, things won't get better. Projections by the U.S. Department of Labor say that less than 13 percent of the jobs created between now and 2018 will pay enough for a single parent with two kids to live on.

A case in point: The current hard times have been a bonanza for fast-food restaurants like McDonald's, which is doing so well that it plans to hire 50,000 workers on one day - April 19. And that's great, but few people can build a future working the counter at McDonald's.

A strong, vibrant America depends on a strong middle class, but the middle class has been losing ground over the past two decades. It's no coincidence that this decline tracks the decline in union membership. A recent study by the Center for American Progress Action Fund suggests that strong unions lead to higher wages and benefits for all workers, union or not. Besides, union activists champion the kinds of government policies that make a difference for workers, like minimum wage, family leave and Social Security.

Unfortunately, the president and Congress missed an opportunity to use federal stimulus money to provide incentives to create jobs in alternative energy and infrastructure. If we ever get serious about creating good jobs, that is still the best route to making the American dream a possibility. *