Since 2001, employment has grown 8.7 percent in lower-wage occupations and 6.6 percent in high-wage ones.
For workers in midwage occupations, wages slipped by 0.9 percent, while there was some good news for workers in higher-wage occupations — their wages rose by 0.9 percent.
"But in the weak recovery to date, employment growth has been concentrated in lower-wage occupations, with minimal growth in midwage occupations and net losses in higher-wage occupations".
The National Employment Law Project points out that job losses in the Great Recession were concentrated in the mid-wage occupations, while most of the jobs added in its aftermath are in low-wage occupations.
Louisiana requires licences for 70% of low-wage occupations, according to IJ, including barber, bartender and cosmetologist.
In contrast, middle-wage occupations account for 60 percent of recession losses and only 20 percent of recovery growth.
For workers in lower-wage occupations, median wages fell 2.3 percent after inflation — partly because many of the newer workers hired had lower wages than others in that group.
Many of the jobs for which CTE graduates qualify are in high wage occupations with real economic mobility.
According to research by the National Employment Law Project, low-wage occupations account for 21 percent of job losses during the recession and 58 percent of job growth during the recovery.
The report said the biggest job losses among higher-wage occupations came among managers, computer scientists and systems analysts, human resources workers, registered nurses and accountants and auditors.
But the number of jobs in high-wage occupations has declined by 461,994 since the recession ended (from first quarter 2010 to first quarter 2011).
