New Jobs vs Old Jobs

So the economy is finally recovering, and jobs are being created. But it seems like the newly-created jobs are mostly inferior to the ones that have been lost. Lower pay, fewer benefits, more likely to be a dead-end job; that sort of thing. I’m constantly hearing about people who got laid off, and are now working for half the pay and no health care or something like that.

Have there been any studies that compare the jobs lost in the last few years with the jobs created in the last few years? I’m curious to know whether we’re really recovering, or whether we’re becoming a nation of Walmart employees.

I don’t have an answer to your real question, but I can tell you that as an employer, I’m hiring people for less money than I was 5 years ago. They are the same sorts of jobs, but the market has changed and the value of those jobs has diminished. Of course, the way I view it, the prices were grossly inflated five years ago, but it is a technically accurate to say these are “inferior jobs”, in that they do pay less.