May 12—Despite reports that the economy is recovering, evidence continues to mount that newly created jobs are less likely to offer health insurance and they pay less than jobs America has lost in recent years.
In all but five states, the percentage of workers with health insurance coverage is significantly less in industries that have gained jobs in the past three years than in industries that have lost jobs, according to Jobs Shift Away from Industries that Provide Health Insurance to Their Workers, a new study released today by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI).
Workers in growing industries also are paid less, the EPI reports. Over the past three years, jobs have been shifting from well-paying manufacturing industries to lower paying service sectors. Nationwide, industries that are gaining jobs pay 21 percent less on average than industries that are losing jobs: In 29 of the 30 states that have lost jobs since November 2001, the losses have been concentrated in higher paying sectors, according to the EPI.
EPI’s new health insurance report finds that industries in which the share of total jobs has declined insure 68 percent of their workers, while 55 percent of workers are insured in industries in which the share of jobs has increased.
“To have these [health coverage] numbers going down is a sign the economy is not doing so well,” says EPI economist Elise Gould, who co-authored the report with Jeff Chapman, an EPI economic analyst. “Many jobs that have been lost since the recession have not been made up and this shows that, in addition, the jobs that are being created do not offer health insurance.”
In 2002, some 3.7 million more Americans had no health insurance than two years earlier, bringing the total uninsured to 43.3 million. Of these uninsured, 26 million were workers, more than half of whom worked full-time for the entire year, EPI says.
A recent study by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation found that in six states, one in five working adults is not insured. In 38 other states, one in 10 is not insured. The report was released as part of Cover the Uninsured Week, May 10–16, an effort by a diverse group of organizations, including the AFL-CIO, SEIU, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, health and insurance industry groups and community and health advocacy organizations, to focus attention on the plight of those without coverage.
Posted by UFCW 227 at May 13, 2004 03:28 PM