Chart of the Week: Got McJobs?

Everybody including the Obamatron's campaigners are talking about the increase in the number of jobs created. His re-election campaign is waving around a bright red canyon and green mountain chart showing all the jobs lost during the Charlatan's occupation of the White House compared to the mountain of new jobs created on Obama's watch. But a few minutes of sober inspection shows that all is not hunky-dory in Lilliputia. The Bureau of Labor Statistics produced a projection through 2020 showing that of the five fastest growing job titles--registered nurses, retail clerks, home health aides, personal care aides and office clerks--only one requires any education beyond high school. Registered nurses only need an associate's degree available at any community college. So much for developing a highly educated and skilled workforce for the new green, technological economy. 30% of the projected job openings will require less than a high school diploma while less than 20% will require a bachelor's degree or more, and a whopping 85% will not require any relevant previous experience. Low-wage peonage for most is on the horizon while the elite educated plutocracy exemplified by the current Repuknik running for the Oval rake in the rents through capital manipulation. Marx called it the comodification of capital. Look it up.

Even more shocking is what these charts show courtesy of John Mauldin at marketoracle.co.uk:

Clearly disposable income in the US has gone flat since the first year of the chart (1996, black line) while the cost of living has continued to rise as measured by the CPI. So while there may be job growth, the wages those new jobs are paying are not enough to keep up with the cost of goods. This gap is one reason many Americans are finding it necessary to work multiple jobs. Furthermore, a lot of family income since 2002 is in the form of government benefit payments:

Without government checks to cover the gap, Joe Sixpac would be in even worse straits (yellow line).  Pariticpation in the civilian work force is at the lowest level in three decades (58.5%).  Most of us are Greeks now, Clint.