Sales Clerk, Ph.D

By Jim Hightower, AlterNet. Posted July 22, 2004.

This passage is an excerpt from Jim Hightower's new book, "Let's Stop Beating Around the Bush."

In his January state-of-the-union peroration, George "Pinocchio" Bush's biggest lie was not about weapons of mass destruction.

Attempting to diffuse the growing anxiety and anger about the loss of middle class jobs, he made the bald-faced assertion that the solution is simple: More job training. Millions of unemployed and underemployed Americans must have stared in slack-jawed disbelief as this son of privilege mouthed the corporate line that everything is OK with our economy, if only America's worthless workers would get more training and improve their skills.

Training for what? Here came George's whopper: "Much of our job growth will be found in high-skilled fields." That's a lie and Bush knows it. Well, OK, he's clueless about real life, so he probably doesn't know it, but his speech writers do.

Bush's own labor department reports that of the 30 occupations that will account for the highest job growth between now and 2010, two-thirds require minimal skills. High-tech companies will create only 284,000 more jobs for computer software engineers in that period - while 10 times more jobs than that will be created in just these seven very low-tech fields: Freight movers, home health aides, janitors, waitresses, security guards, office clerks, and cashiers.

The number one job-creator for America's future? Restaurant workers, including fast food. This category alone will create 10 times more jobs than will software engineering. You don't need a high-tech degree, you need a hair net! And all of these jobs pay pitiful wages – of the top 30 "growth jobs," nearly half pay only $14,000 - $20,000 a year.

By the way, despite his call for more training in each of his four years, Bush has cut the budgets of our federal job-training programs. And forget about getting one of those 284,000 software engineering jobs – companies are now shipping them off to India, Russia, and other low-wage countries.

Training doesn't create jobs, and low-wage jobs don't create a middle class. America needs a living wage, labor law reform, an end to subsidies for corporations that ship our good jobs out... and a president who has a clue.

Here's America's high-tech future!

Jobs with the largest growth between now and 2010:

Listed by title, annual salary, and necessary eduaction level

1. Food preparer, $16,000 – On-the-job training
2. Customer service rep., $26,000 – On-the-job training
3. Registered nurse, $48,000 – Two-year degree
4. Retail sales clerk, $18.000 – On-the-job training
5. Computer support specialist, $39,000 – Two-year degree
6. Cashier, $15,000 – On-the-job training
7. Office clerk, $22,000 – On-the-job training
8. Security guard, $19,000 – On-the-job training
9. Computer technician, $55,000 – Bachelor's degree
10. Waiter/Waitress, $14,000 – On-the-job training
11. General manager, $68,000 – Bachelor's degree
12. Truck driver, $33,000 – On-the-job training
13. Nursing aide, $19,000 – On-the-job training
14. Janitor, $18,000 – On-the-job training
15. College teachers, $52,000 – Doctoral Degree
16. Teacher assistant, $19,000 – On-the-job training
17. Home health aide, $18,000 – On-the-job training
18. Freight haulers, $19,000 On-the-job training
19. Computer engineer, $70,000 – Bachelor's degree
20. Landscaping worker, $20,000 – On-the-job training

Jim Hightower is the best-selling author of "Let's Stop Beating Around the Bush," from Viking Press. For more information, visit jimhightower.com.

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