The economy adds low-paying jobs, and high-paying jobs become scarce

• The economy is settling into its new form, and this may mean lower wages for new workers.
• Job growth in April was concentrated in traditionally low-wage sectors such as health care and retail.
• Wage growth, although slowing, still outpaces inflation, which continues to be a boon for workers.

The economy is settling into its new form after a long roller coaster ride — and it’s not all good news if you’re looking to earn a big paycheck.

Jobs are still being added at a good pace, and unemployment remains near a sustained historic low. According to the latest jobs report. that it exactly What the Fed might be looking for is continued good news for an economy supported by a thriving job market.

“Wage growth has outpaced inflation, which translates into more money in the pockets of working families. This is no coincidence,” Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su told Business Insider.

But there is disharmony in the labor market; If you are a white collar worker and a college graduate, you may know this well. This is because the industries that led Job growth in April Traditionally low paying.

It’s another sign that high-paying jobs are becoming more scarce, and it comes as more Americans find themselves employed, but not necessarily sedentary. Perhaps it also falls more on women See historical employment numbers.

For example, private education and health services led job growth last month — and while that may seem high-paying on the face of it, the data under the hood tells a different story. The bulk of job growth in this sector occurs in areas such as Health care and social assistancewhich includes traditionally low-wage workers in nursing and residential care facilities, and home health care workers.

“Health care is just not doing well,” Julia Pollack, chief economist at ZipRecruiter, told Business Insider. “Healthcare dominates everything. It added 56,000 jobs in this report, but it added more than 750,000 jobs over the past year.”

In fact, job growth is concentrated in historically low-wage industries – which continue to pay wages below the average across private industries. These industries, and the subgroups within them that are seeing significant growth, are also dominated by women, Kate Pan, chief economist and senior vice president for research at the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, told BI.

“The sectors that saw job growth were not the sectors that saw high wage growth,” Bahn said, adding: “It’s interesting that there is high demand for labor in those industries — obviously — but it hasn’t translated into high wage growth.”

The three sectors that saw net job growth of at least 20,000 jobs last month all had average wages lower than the average wages of all private sector employees:

This indicates continued dynamism in the labor market: white-collar workers are seeing a decline in employment, Business Insider’s Aki Ito noted. The employment rate for those earning more than $96,000 is just 0.5% — its lowest level since 2014.

It’s all a mixed bag. As Pollack points out, “Wage growth has fallen sharply, but mostly in industries where it was very rapid before.”

Wages in sectors with lower wages I slept faster compared to those working in higher-wage industries over the past few years, as demand for hourly workers has risen and employers have turned toward increasing wages and benefits to try to fill shortages in a tight labor market.

“I think low-wage jobs are a little better compared to how terrible they used to be,” Bahn said.

But as Bahn points out, “There’s a lot of evidence that women are really constrained and limited in their mobility in the labor market when they’re in these career paths for female-dominated jobs like health care and education.”

The rise of these jobs may also contribute to another growing group that is filling some of the gaps in the economy. There is a growing percentage of workers in the United States who are known as “ALICE”: asset limited, income limited, employed. This means they keep their jobs, earn enough money to be ineligible for many social services – but they still can’t get by.

Workers below the ALICE threshold are Do worse. They are concentrated in industries such as retail, health care and social assistance, and accommodation and food services – all of which are currently booming jobs.

But even if wage growth isn’t as high as it used to be, Nick Pinker — director of North American economic research at Indeed Hiring Lab — noted to Business Insider that “wages continue to outpace inflation,” which could be good for jobs. Researchers.

“I think this is a sign that you’re going to get more money for each pay raise than you did in the past,” Bunker said.