The Economic Depression…for Blue-Collar Workers
By: Ron Ruggiero
While in Boston yesterday to promote our new report An Industry at a Crossroads: Energy Efficiency Employment in Massachusetts (co-authored with our Massachusetts Affiliate), I learned some startling facts from a co-presenter, Andrew Lum (Director, Center for Labor Market Studies, Northeastern University).
In a recent report that he wrote, he makes a compelling case that the Great Recession has really been another Great Depression for blue-collar workers. The numbers are striking:
- Of the 8 million jobs that we have lost in the United States since the economic crisis, two-thirds have been lost in the blue-collar sector. In contrast, the Professional/Managerial class of the workforce has lost zero jobs during this time.
- While the national unemployment rate hovers at 10%, for blue-collar workers it is 17%.
- It gets worse when you count underemployment, which includes both unemployed workers and those working part-time but looking for full-time work. Blue-collar underemployment stands at 33%. This is worse than it was during the Great Depression.
- The economic dislocation afflicting blue-collar workers is largely permanent: 70% of unemployed blue-collar workers in recent months report that they were either permanently laid off from their jobs or had held a tempoary job that ended with no prospects of recall.
When taken together with the wage stagnation that has affliced most American workers for the past 30 years, you end up with an urgent need to revitalize the economic opportunities for all workers, but especially those in the blue-collar sector.
Fortunately, the clean energy economy offers at least some important answers to this urgent need. It is well documented that most green jobs will be in the blue-collar sector. Building a High Road Energy Efficiency economy–as called for in the report released yesterday–can re-employ many unemployed construction workers, for example. Passage of the IMPACT Act can begin the long process of revitalizing our manufacturing sector–with a focus on manufacturing the equipment and parts needs to build a clean energy economy. The United States committing itself to a long-term investment in transitioning to a clean energy economy, as called for in the New Apollo Program, would create over 5 million jobs–most of which would be filled by blue-collar workers.