Big business
Portion of U.S. jobs in service sector: 82 percent
Portion in metro Atlanta : 88 percent
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Big opportunities, small wages
Most future U.S. jobs won’t pay above the median wage. Here are the 10 fastest-growing occupations through 2022. Wages are based on the 2012 median which, for all occupations, was $34,750.
Occupation/ Increase in jobs/ Wage
Personal care aides… 581,000… $19,910
Registered nurses… 527,000… $65,470
Retail salespersons… 435,000… $21,110
Home health aides… 424,000… $20,820
Fast food, waiters… 422,000… $18,260
Nursing assistants… 312,000… $24,420
Secretaries… 308,000… $32,410
Customer service reps… 299,000… $30,580
Janitors… 280,000… $22,320
Construction laborers… 260,000… $29,990
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics
At the Stars and Strikes bowling emporium, Monday night is party night for the waiters and waitresses who are free, finally, after a long weekend schlepping burgers and jollying customers.
All 34 lanes at the Paulding County business were filled one recent Monday evening with waiters, store clerks, hair stylists, mechanics, personal trainers and manicurists.
“People work hard all weekend, so this is their time to have fun,” said manager Randy Riggs, overseeing the alley’s “Service Industry Night” where those in the industry can bowl for free.
Every little bit helps for the mostly low-wage workers who toil for tips, the minimum wage or other less-than-average remuneration. The service industry, particularly in metro Atlanta, has generated the lion’s share of jobs since the Great Recession ended six years ago.
The industry, technically, is much more than burger-flippers and car-washers. It includes lawyers, accountants and IT whizzes who make good money. But the majority of future service industry jobs, again particularly in Atlanta, will pay below-average wages, according to state and federal statistics.
The average hourly wage for waiters in metro Atlanta is currently $9.20, vs. $10.40 nationally. Cashiers make $9.33, vs. $9.93 nationally. Retail salespersons average $12.20 vs.$12.38. The average hourly wage for all occupations: $23.44 an hour, vs. $22.71 nationwide.
“Servers make $2.13 an hour and tips. That’s not fair. They deserve minimum wage and tips at least,” said Justin Dills, 21, bowling with Applebee’s co-workers. “I wish I had more money to take girls out to fancier places.”
Measuring service
Jobs in America fall into two very broad categories described as goods-producing or service-providing, according to the Bureau of Labor Standards. You either make something — factory workers, farmers, construction workers, coal miners — or you serve somebody. The service industry runs the gamut: cooks, registered nurses, grease monkeys, airline pilots, insurance and real estate agents, plumbers, garbage men, company managers, secretaries, hotel maids.
The industry mirrors the nation's economic, social and demographic transformation from a rural and agrarian society to a more urban and manufacturing-based one to today's predominantly service-oriented economy situated in cities and suburbs. Most jobs created since 1970 have been service-related.
The rise of women in the workplace mirrored the growth of retail jobs, products and purchases. More family wealth, and less free time, translated into a slew of new jobs. Families eat out more. They buy prepared meals. They put kids in child care or hire nannies. Customer service and telemarketing jobs exploded. Health care jobs have increased more than any other occupation since the 1950s due to an aging population and new technologies.
Today, the service industry comprises 82 percent of all U.S. jobs, BLS reports. In metro Atlanta, it accounts for 88 percent.
Since the recession Metro Atlanta has added nearly twice as many service jobs, percentage-wise, as the nation. Georgia tallies 3.6 million service-providing jobs, according to the state labor department, up 200,000 from the recession’s end. Goods-producing jobs, meanwhile, haven’t yet returned to 2008 levels.
“The recession was very hard on manufacturing and construction and we’ve only regained a quarter of those jobs,” said Harry Holzer, a professor of public policy at Georgetown University. “It was a very weak recovery, early on, and for a long time employers, if they created jobs, they were more likely to be jobs at the bottom.”
And those jobs, more often than not, were in the service industry. Lower-wage jobs at restaurants, retail outlets and temp agencies accounted for 40 percent of all private sector employment growth between January 2008 and February 2014, according to the National Employment Law Project.
The liberal New York think tank broke down post-recession employment trends into three job tiers: lower wage industries (paying $9.48 to $13.33 an hour); middle-wage industries ($13.73 to $20 an hour); and higher-wage industries (20.03 to $32.62 an hour).
One of every five jobs lost during the recession was low-wage. Yet more than two of every five jobs created by 2014 paid less than $13.33 an hour. Payrolls added nearly 2 million more low-wage workers than before the recession.
More than 40 percent of the jobs that disappeared in the recession paid a high wage, according to NELP, but only 30 percent of high wage jobs have been created since. Nearly 1 million fewer high-wage jobs existed in 2014 than before the recession.
“Low-wage job creation was not simply a characteristic of the first phase of the recovery, but rather a pattern that has persisted for more than four years now,” NELP reported. “Deep into the recovery, job growth is still heavily concentrated in lower-wage industries.”
‘A job is a job’
Heather Black isn’t dismayed by the disproportionate surge in low-paying jobs. At 22, the Georgia Highlands College student is happy, for now, with her Steak ‘n Shake job that pays $2.13 an hour plus tips.
“At least for people around my age, a job is a job. But for people older than me it probably sucks,” she said while sipping a strawberry-lemon margarita at the Stars and Strikes. Low wages “won’t be good in the future because people won’t have enough money to purchase things. They’ll pay their bills and that’s it.”
NELP’s Claire McKenna and Holzer say more recent data shows that higher-paying service jobs — accountants, lawyers, engineers — are now coming back in greater numbers. Health care jobs remained steady during the recession and will likely only grow as Baby Boomers retire. And decent-paying constructions jobs, particularly in Atlanta, are also rebounding.
“Not all service-industry jobs are bad, of course,” Holzer said. “And there are all kinds of new, middle-wage service industry jobs: health care technicians, heating and cooling technicians; paralegals, guys that manage databases; high-end retail; Costco workers; leisure and hospitality managers; chefs. These are all better-paying service-industry jobs.”
Metro Atlanta is a good market for higher-paying jobs. While lower-end jobs here pay a bit less than the national average, others fare well. Management jobs, for example, pay 4 percent higher than the national average, according to BLS economist Matt Dotson. Salesmen and transportation workers make 8 percent more.
But jobs at the low end will likely continue to outpace jobs at the high end.
By 2022, elementary school teaching positions are expected to surge 45 percent, the state labor department reports, the largest occupational increase projected for metro Atlanta. Sales reps should see 44 percent more jobs. Landscaping, secretary and janitor positions will grow by 40 percent.
None pay particularly well. Of the 10 fastest-growing U.S. jobs over the next decade, according to the BLS, only one will pay above the median wage.
Dills, bowling in lane 32 at the Stars and Strikes, wants to go to college. Or trade school. Or work in a bank. Or do computers. Anything, in the future, but flipping burgers.
“It’s easy to get service-industry jobs,” he said, “but they could slow down our economy and the community, in general, would be less wealthy.”
Dills then proceeded to knock down every pin.
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