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It’s 2009, do you know where your job is?
Chances are the answer to that question is “in a service business,” because that’s where nearly 85 percent of workers in the labor market that includes Luzerne, Lackawanna and Wyoming counties earn their living, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry.
And what are service jobs? Well, they range anywhere from teachers and nurses to truck drivers and waiters, all of which, by the way, are big employment categories here.
That should be a good thing if you subscribed to the mantra promoted for the past couple of decades. Making things? So 1960s. Instead, we “add value” with services that require specific expertise that only Americans, with their superior intellect and training, can offer.
Really.
But perhaps we’ve been mistaken. Service industries, it turns out, aren’t immune to economic contractions and people in other countries, like India, will work harder for even less pay than the $26,340 median annual salary that L&I says Luzerne County customer service representatives earn.
Granted, some service jobs can’t be exported. It’s hard to serve a martini at Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs from Mumbai. (The median salary for bartenders was $15,910, although it’s likely most tips aren’t reported.) And taking tickets (median salary $18,830) at the Wachovia Arena (at Casey Plaza, to give another service worker, former Gov. Robert Casey, his due) can’t be done from Romania … yet.
Still, the labor market area comprised of Luzerne, Lackawanna and Wyoming counties lost more than 5,000 service jobs over the 12 months through September. That’s even more disheartening given that goods-producing jobs have disappeared at a consistent rate for several years.
After decades lagging the national economy, Northeastern Pennsylvania caught up in recent years as we transitioned from mining to maintenance, manufacturing to mixing drinks. But it’s beginning to feel like we – and perhaps the nation – are poorer for the change, stuck with an economy that provides lots of service but with meager rewards. That’s unless your service is working for Goldman Sachs or other firms that have figured out how to turn the dross of subprime mortgages into bonus gold.
No lesser American icon than General Electric is signaling that it’s time for Americans to make things again.
To quote from their Web site: “The company just announced that it’s opening an Advanced Manufacturing and Software Technology Center outside of Detroit that will bring 1,100 jobs to Michigan.”
Of course, GE isn’t being wholly patriotic. The international behemoth knows that a weakening dollar will make U.S. manufacturers more competitive in world markets. The flip side of that, though, is that our ability to afford imported goods shrinks along with the value of the buck.
That leads to what may be the greatest fallacy of some contemporary economic thought; that consumption is the route to prosperity. We’re constantly reminded – erroneously, I believe – that consumer spending represents 70 percent of economic activity and until we open our wallets to buy more junk and bigger homes, the economy will remain in a funk.
That thinking seems backward; we need to be high-value producers before we can be consumers. Until that happens, most of us will be forced to revise our goals downward. That seems un-American, but it’s reality for now.