Just over six years ago, in December of 2010, we wrote "Charting America's Transformation To A Part-Time Worker Society",
in which we predicted - and showed - that in light of the underlying
changes resulting from the second great depression, whose full impacts
remain masked by trillions in monetary stimulus and soon, perhaps
fiscal, America is shifting from a traditional work force, one where the
majority of new employment is retained on a full-time basis, to a "gig"
economy, where workers are severely disenfranchised, and enjoy far less
employment leverage, job stability and perks than their pre-crash
peers. It also explains why despite the 4.5% unemployment rate, which
the Fed has erroneously assumed is indicative of job market at
"capacity", wage growth not only refuses to materialize, but as we
showed yesterday, the growth in real disposable personal income was the lowest since 2014.
When we first penned our article, it was dubbed "fringe" tinfoil hattery, or in the latest vernacular, "fake news."
When we first penned our article, it was dubbed "fringe" tinfoil hattery, or in the latest vernacular, "fake news."
Fast forward 6 years, when a report by Harvard and Princeton economists Lawrence Katz and Alan Krueger,
confirms exactly what we warned. In their study, the duo show that from
2005 to 2015, the proportion of Americans workers engaged in what they
refer to as “alternative work” soared during the Obama era, from 10.7%
in 2005 to 15.8% in 2015. Alternative, or "gig" work is defined as
"temporary help agency workers, on-call workers, contract company
workers, independent contractors or freelancers", and is generally
unsteady, without a fixed paycheck and with virtually no benefits.
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