Found this interesting piece in today's paper. Read it and weep. This is only the beginning.

Lower-paying jobs grow in state & U.S.

Poughkeepsie Journal
By Craig Wolf-1/22/04

The feeling that American jobs are shifting
from higher-paying sectors to lower- paying ones isn't just a feeling, a think tank report said Wednesday.
It's a fact, concluded the Economic Policy Institute.
''Jobs are shifting from higher-paying to lower-paying industries,'' said Michael Ettlinger, an economist at the Washington institute, in a conference call with reporters. ''What I found most surprising is that the job shift to low-paying industries has happened in 48 of the 50 states.''
New York is one. The group's analysis of federal Bureau of Labor Statistics data on jobs since the end of the recession in November 2001 shows sectors losing jobs in New York paid an average wage of $54,537. But the ones gaining jobs averaged only $34,081, a difference of 38 percent.
''New York has a big loss in manufacturing jobs, almost 70,000,'' said Jeff Chapman, also an economist at the institute. ''There were increases in education and health services and leisure and hospitality.''

JOB OPENINGS COMING

However, the state Department of Labor predicts that in the Hudson Valley, the top 10 areas for job openings will be for retail salespersons; cashiers; registered nurses; office clerks; child-care workers; teacher assistants; waiters and waitresses; home health aides; maids and cleaners; and stock clerks and order filers. All but the nurses are typically lower-wage jobs.

Asked to what extent the wage shift relates to companies shipping work overseas in search of cheaper workers, the Economic Policy Institute's research director, Lee Price, said most ''offshoring" lies in the future.

''Offshoring has clearly already taken place,'' Price said, ''but I think the clear weight of the evidence is that there's a lot more being planned." Its current effect is to limit wage growth for those white-collar jobs.