New York Times correspondent discusses 'tough times' for workers

04/22/09 - Students and faculty packed into the University of Rhode Island Lippitt Hall auditorium to hear Steven Greenhouse discuss his best-selling book, "The Big Squeeze: Tough Times for the American Worker." Greenhouse is also the labor and workplace correspondent for The New York Times and his book is based on the current state of the economy and the workplace.

Greenhouse said approximately five million people lost jobs in the past year and approximately three-and-a-half million people lost jobs in just the past few months.

"This is a great a time to be in college," he joked.

Greenhouse said he is hoping for economic improvement, but right now the number of uninsured, unemployed and those in poverty are rising rapidly.

Greenhouse related the title of his book, "The Big Squeeze," to ongoing economic issues, saying each part of the workplace and the economy could be broken up into separate "squeezes."

"It really should be called 'The Big Squeezes,'" he said.

Greenhouse discussed several "squeezes," including wages for the typical worker, which have risen only seven-tenths of 1 percent this year. The typical household income is down 6 percent for young people between 25 and 34-years-old, Greenhouse added, even though the typical worker works 1,804 hours a year.

An average 30-year-old male earns 12 percent less (after inflation) than earlier generations.

Greenhouse said health insurance is considered another "squeeze." Many families are paying more out of their pockets - twice as much than they were seven or eight years ago, Greenhouse said. When he entered the workforce, two-thirds of jobs provided health insurance, and now only one-third provide it.

But that's not the only problem facing workers today.

Greenhouse said many jobs aren't offering pensions or 401(k) plans, and less than half of people between 24 and 35 years old are even signed up for a pension or have 401(k) plans. In addition, older Americans are having difficulty retiring because of dwindling pensions, meaning there are fewer jobs available for younger generations.

He pointed to offshoring as another reason for declining job rates. The nation has lost 30 percent of manufacturing jobs, which are now being transferred overseas.

"[This is] a serious problem that we as a nation haven't paid nearly as much attention to," Greenhouse said.

One of Greenhouse's anecdotes details the phenomenon. An American worker was laid off along with 17 coworkers, while her employer gave the jobs to workers in India. The woman was paid $80,000 per year, while her foreign replacements were given approximately $6,000 to $10,000 to do the same work.

Freshman Jaclyn Turturro said she enjoyed the stories he told in relation to his book.

"[It was] very informative and he was very detailed with his personal stories," she said.

Greenhouse ended the lecture discussing Obama's plans for the nation's economy - which he is hoping to add three and a half million jobs.

"[Obama's] No. 1 priority is to stop the economy from going over the waterfall and to stop recession from becoming a full-fledged depression," he said.