You can file this under Purely Anecdotal, but I find it noteworthy: Of the three people Planet Money has followed through the process of losing work and finding a new job, each one has taken what amounts to a pay cut in the new job.

Terri Weiss, an educational proofreader laid off in Ohio, found another gig at roughly the same pay, except that the new company was under a temporary salary reduction. Noel Paterson, a game developer in Washington state, found new work at about 10 percent lower pay. Daniel Cross, a circuit designer in Florida, found a new job and a 25 percent smaller salary. "I'm happy to get it," he says, echoing what the others told us about their situations.

Here's something you can file under Actual Statistics: Workers are losing the ground they've gained in wages.

In the latest Employment Situation Report, the Bureau of Labor Statistics says hourly wages grew by .1 percent over the last month, the same as the previous report. That's compared to a trend of .3 percent per month in the summer of 2008. "Doesn't sound like much change," Ian Shepherdson of High Frequency Economics writes to us, "but annualized that's the difference between year-over-year rises of just over 1 percent and 3.5 percent, which is huge."

Or as Shepherdson put it in an earlier note, "Why would companies hire? Unemployment horrific, wage gains tanking. Less bad, yes; good, no."

categories: Employment

11:52 - June 5, 2009

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