Recovery short on mid-wage jobs in Georgia

According to business, Georgia is friendly to business. But this doesn't mean it is good for the people of Georgia.

http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/blog/capitol_vision/2014/07/report-recovery-short-on-mid-wage-jobs-in-georgia.html

Jul 17, 2014
Dave Williams
Staff Writer-Atlanta Business Chronicle


Georgia’s economic recovery has been good at generating low- and high-paying jobs but not so much jobs for middle-class wage earners, according to a new study.

While mid-wage industries in Georgia suffered 52 percent of the private-sector job losses from 2007 to 2010, roughly the period of the Great Recession, only 15 percent of employment gains during the recovery from 2010 through last year came in that sector, the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute (GBPI) reported Thursday.

Georgia’s private sector had about 138,100 fewer middle-wage jobs in 2013 than in 2007, according to the study.

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The study also found state and local budget cuts responsible for large numbers of mid-wage job losses in the public sector among groups including teachers, police officers and government workers. With available tax revenues shrinking due to the recession, state and local governments employed 35,700 fewer workers in 2013 than in 2007, the report said.

To reverse the trend, the report recommended such immediate steps as raising Georgia’s minimum wage and creating a state-level earned income tax credit.

“If we’re going to have an economy that’s tilted toward low-income work, we should do everything we can to make sure those jobs can support a family,” Tharpe said.

In the longer run, the GBPI advocated ending cuts made in recent years to K-12 education in the state’s public schools, universities and technical colleges and stepped-up skills training geared toward jobs that are in demand in Georgia’s economy.