Nearly half of Georgia’s “frontline manufacturing production workers” — auto workers, machinists, metal workers — receive public assistance, according to an eye-opening report released this week by the University of California, Berkeley.
Nationwide, one-third of these workers get food stamps, Medicaid, the federal Earned Income Tax Credit or other government aid. The benefits cost state and local governments about $10 billion annually, the analysis found.
In Georgia, the public assistance costs $427 million.
Eight of the top 10 states whose production workers receive public assistance are in the South where low wages and anti-unionism are prevalent.
“Manufacturing has long been thought of as providing high-paying, middle-class work, but the reality is the production jobs are increasingly coming to resemble fast-food or Walmart jobs, especially for those workers employed through temporary staffing agencies,” said Ken Jacobs, who co-authored the report.
Jacobs and colleagues lay much of the blame on the rise in workers placed in factories by temp agencies.
Temp jobs account for 9 percent of all frontline manufacturing jobs; they accounted for only 1 percent of the jobs a generation ago. Temp-hired assemblers and fabricators, the study says, earn a median wage of $10.88 an hour. Those hired directly by the factory earned $15.03.
Read the report here.
Support real journalism. Support local journalism. Subscribe to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution today. See offers.
Your subscription to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution funds in-depth reporting and investigations that keep you informed. Thank you for supporting real journalism.
Download the new AJC app. More local news, more breaking news and in-depth journalism. AJC.com. Atlanta. News. Now.
Download the new AJC app. More local news, more breaking news and in-depth journalism. AJC.com. Atlanta. News. Now.
With the largest team in the state, the AJC reports what’s really going on with your tax dollars and your elected officials. Subscribe today. Visit the AJC's Georgia Navigator for the latest in Georgia politics.
Your subscription to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution funds in-depth reporting and investigations that keep you informed. Thank you for supporting real journalism. Visit the AJC's Georgia Navigator for the latest in Georgia politics.