Insecurity
Today’s Washington Post has a front-page article about the use of long-term “perma-temp” workers in manufacturing. It’s a well-written, thoughtful article about a serious problem. The temps make less money, get less benefits, and have less job security than the permanent workers they share the assembly line with.
It does annoy me, however, that this article, like the previous one in the Post’s series on the Vanishing Middle Class, exclusively talks about male workers, even though women are significantly more likely to be temps than men. It’s not like the authors couldn’t find any women workers — in each article, one of the men is maried to a woman who works or worked for the same company.
What the articles get right, I think, is the degree to which the “decline of the middle class” is not about income declines, but about the increase in insecurity.
The good blue collar jobs are gone or going fast, but even higher education isn’t a guarantee of a good lifetime job. The overall numbers on health insurance obscure the number of people who are uncovered for short periods of time, or who have to keep changing doctors because their insurance provider shifts. Divorce rates are high. Bankruptcy rates are high. Young people don’t believe that Social Security will still exist when they’re ready to retire. More retirement plans are “defined contribution” and fewer are “defined benefit.” People are afraid that the good life is going to slip out from under them.
October 13th, 2004 at 9:29 pm
They should be worried. And voting their worries. But I think income decline and increasing insecurity amount to the same thing. If you can’t count on Social Security or corporate pensions, you’ve got to make up the savings yourself. Hence less disposable income.
Perma-temp’s not just in manufacturing, as you’re probably aware. Been professional since Chainsaw Al days. I got a good friend driving a cab these days; he lost his two part-time perma-temp IT jobs when someone ratted out the employer for playing the perma-temp game illegally.
I’d be curious to see these numbers, for one of those companies: Total no. professional employees (say $50K+ salary) and total professional compensation v. total no. employees and total compensation below that level.