© Des Moines Register
Former President Barrack Obama
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."
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.
Comment: Framing the outcome to resemble progress, when reality proved Obama was using smoke and mirrors to disguise an employment crisis of alarming proportion, was nothing more than a con job. HIs dismal record has made the Trump administration's efforts for job growth and job security look even better.