Lowest-Wage Sectors Produce 40 Percent To 50 Percent Of Job Gains In Recoveries Since 1970s

From the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, Macroblog, "Myth and Reality: The Low-Wage Job Machine" by Dave Altig:

The following chart shows the percentages of job gains sorted by low-wage, middle-wage, and high-wage sectors for each of the U.S. expansion periods dating back to 1970:

Source:  Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta

I've dated the current recovery from March 2010: the month that employment gains turned positive. It should also be noted that the cross-recovery comparisons are not quite apples-to-apples given changes in the way sectoral employment is reported by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (There are only 11 sectors, for example, in the recovery periods prior to 1991.)

But I don't think this materially alters the basic picture: The lowest-wage sectors have consistently produced 40 percent to 50 percent of the job gains in recent recoveries. Though the percentage was slightly higher in July, it was not materially so. And this recovery does not look at all unusual when taken as a whole.