Private Sector Employment Losing Luster

Now that all of the experts are predicting that the recession is pretty much over and the stock market is up 50% since March, we all should be breathing a sigh of relief. Our 401k plans are rising again, the economy is leveling off, all should be OK right? Yet, somehow, I feel disconnected from all of this economic joy. When I look around, I do not see things getting any better for the middle class; at least those employed by the private sector.

Over the last decade our wages have been stagnant but now they are just downright declining. In the last 8 years, my husband was only able to gain a wage increase by switching jobs, the last time we both actually got raises from a private employer was at the end of the 1990s. So far, many of our fellow unemployed folks who have been fortunate to get employment offers are accepting less pay for the same or similar job that they just lost.

My husband just got an offer over $10,000 less than his old job with an inferior healthcare plan. In fact, the company announced today that next year's plan will be even more inferior due to rising costs. We accepted the offer though because you can't look a gift job in the mouth these days. We are thrilled that one of us now has a job but as he looks around at the folks toiling in his new workplace, they are grateful to have a job and fearful of losing it. They all get in by 8am, work all day, take no lunch, take no vacations, and do not leave the office before 6pm. This is the new reality for many who work in the private sector.

Last weekend, I read in the New York Times that the economy produced 120,000 private sector jobs since 1999. In ten years, during all of the economic boom that we were supposedly experiencing, before all the bubbles crashed at once, only a net of 120,000 private sector jobs were created. Yet, during those boom times, many public sector unions were able to obtain the most generous salary and benefit increases that now must be honored despite the economic reversal of fortune.

Where I live, on the south shore of Suffolk County, most of the parents that I encounter in my community are public employees of some sort; teachers or school workers, police people, railroad workers, postal workers, fire people and the like who seem to be the only people still spending money. The rest are contractors; plumbers, carpenters, landscapers and mechanics, all of which did quite well over the last 10 years judging from their homes and their lifestyle but are now pulling back because of the economy. There are very few who work in the private sector, and if they do they are Long Island based. I imagine they are in the same boat as we are.

So far, in the six years that we have been living in our community we have not met anyone who commutes to the city like my husband does; I'm sure there's a few out there, though. After traveling all over the island and meeting more people, anecdotal evidence suggests that most NYC commuters live in Nassau County or above the LIE in Suffolk County. In fact, when we moved out here, our neighbors were shocked that my husband worked in the city. I suppose if we were surrounded by more NYC commuter folk, we could get a better pulse on how they are surviving.

Anyhow, we are starting to get jealous of the public sector people. They have job security, incredible lifestyles, nice homes, nice vacations, nice vehicles, nice everything and we feel like we are struggling all the time. We have no comfort zone when it comes to employment, we have no job security, we have to save for our own retirement and every year we have to pay more and accept a lesser healthcare plan. Who knew this was going to be the case? None of those public sector jobs were glamorous back in the 1980s when we were going to college and making our choices but now they look downright lovely. Sure, there will be a day of reckoning for those public sector employees but right now they are sitting pretty and I wish I was sitting there next to them right about now.