Economy-General News/Research

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The U.S. Private Sector Job Quality Index (JQI)

JQI Slideshow Job Quality Index Home Page

Private sector jobs available in the U.S. have declined materially in “quality,” as measured by the weekly dollar-income they generate. The JQI focuses on Production and Non-supervisory (“P&NS”) jobs – 82.3% of all private sector jobs. At the beginning of the 1990s, 52.7% of all P&NS jobs were below the weekly wage mean for all such jobs. Yet, for the past three decades, 63.0% of the new P&NS jobs created have fallen below the weekly wage mean for all such jobs. The JQI is a New Metric to Track and Explain this Paradox 5 Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics and authors’ calculations Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics and authors’ calculations.

Second, low quality jobs not only provide far fewer hours of work, but have also seen a net reduction in average hours worked per week, of a full hour—from a peak 31.0 hours in 1999 to 30.0 hours today. While high quality jobs have essentially held flat at 1990’s 38.3 hours per week and have shaved only 24 minutes from their all-time high levels in 1997. The JQI team combined these trends into an index that is monitored and updated monthly with BLS employment data. It is designed to fill an major gap in our understanding of changes in the composition of U.S. jobs and the impacts of these changes on other important economic and social metrics. The 21st Century Exacerbation of Income Disparities (cont’d) 7 Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics and authors’ calculations.

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