When you are out looking for work, you apply to the jobs that are really interesting and you think will pay good. These days though, job seekers are no longer that choosy. What has become important is having a job that pays. With inflation being mentioned as being a threat to global recovery, all the more reason to have a job that will at least give you a slight edge, if only a small one.

It is said that the economy is recovering; in fact it is finally producing jobs again but then a recent study made by the National Employment Law Program showed a disturbing trend. The jobs that have been created and are available for job seekers are those that pay less and offer fewer work hours than the ones they have replaced.

Here are some of the highlights in the NELP Study:

There is a remarkable imbalance between where the job losses occurred and where the growth in the past year was concentrated.  And it has shown that:

The lower-wage industries like retail and food services accounted for 23 percent of job loss but 49 percent of the jobs gained over the last year. The higher-wage industries like finance and banking accounted for 40 percent of job loss but only 14 percent of jobs gained. More people being paid lowly by the hour are being hired while those who need to be in business casual with five to six digits annual salary are not. So, basically the study is showing that low paying jobs are on the rise while the high paying jobs is on the decline.

The biggest losers are: Construction, Finance and insurance, Non-durable manufacturing, Information

These are the industries that have constituted the largest percentage of job losses which has not been regained. In fact, finance and insurance is almost back to year 2000 employment levels, the Great Recession seemingly has erased the 10 year employment growth. Real estate and rental and leasing industry’s decline is closely related to the decline of the construction industry.

The gainers are:Administrative and support and waste management and remediation services, Durable manufacturing, Ambulatory health care services, Retail trade, Other Services

Although current employment for these industries, except ambulatory health care services and other health-related sectors is still far-below their pre-recession peak, these are the industries that posted a huge increase in hiring or percentage of employment growth. Health-related sectors shown steady growth and are now already above pre-recession employment levels and is expected to maintain steady growth in the future.

The large numbers of jobs created are part-time which boosts the temp industry thus we see the admin and support increase in employment growth.