Wages in a wide swath of new U.S. city jobs are down 23 percent from the jobs that were lost when the housing bubble burst in 2008, according to a report by President Barack Obama’s political allies.
That’s a damaging claim by Obama’s friends, as he claims on the 2014 campaign trail that he has led the economy to recovery.
The report was produced for the U.S. Conference of Mayors, which largely echoes the priorities of Democratic urban mayors, and is led by an Obama ally, Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson. It was unveiled at a New York event hosted by the city’s far-left mayor, Bill DeBlasio.
The lost manufacturing and construction jobs in metropolitan areas paid almost $62,000 per year, while the new hospitality, health-care and administrative jobs pay only $47,000 a year, said the Aug. 11 report, titled “U.S. Metro Economies.”
“This wage gap of 23% is significantly larger than that of the earlier recession and recovery (2000-2006), and implies $93 billion in lower wage income,” said a summary of the report. The wage-drop after the 2000-2006 recession was 12 percent, the report said.
The lower-wage drops dragged average household income down to $51,000, the lowest since 1995, or down 3 percent from income in 2005, the report said .
But Obama is telling his supporters that the economy has almost recovered, after six years of his tenure.
“America has recovered faster and come farther than just about any other advanced country on Earth,” Obama told supporters at a July 30 rally in Kansas City, Mo. “For the first time in more than a decade, if you ask business leaders around the world what’s the number-one place to invest, they don’t say China anymore. They say the United States of America. And our lead is growing,” he declared.
“So sometimes you wouldn’t know it if you were watching the news, but there are a lot of good reasons to be optimistic about America,” he complained.
“Things are getting better [and] the decisions we make now can make things even better,” he insisted.
By Neil Munro Follow Neil on Twitter
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