‘Economic Recovery?‘ Check Out This Graph on American ’Sweatshops’

Posted on March 22, 2012 at 1:22pm by Becket Adams

The Blaze:

Okay, so you’ve heard all about those “better than expected” jobs numbers and you’re starting to wonder whether President Obama’s economic policies have actually been “successful.”

So here’s something to consider, via Zero Hedge:

…as discussed previously, the rising jobs are purely a quantity over quality trade off, as every month more and more temp jobs take the place of permanent ones, especially those of former professionals from the FIRE sector.

In fact, in January temp jobs soared by the most on record, and the total number of temp workers was just shy of all time highs.

While this happened, online retail companies saw the stock prices soar. You know why?

“One of the primary drivers for this has been the increased ‘efficiency’ at these companies’ hubs – their warehouses,” the Hedge explains, “Which just happen to be staffed with temp workers.”

And although Zero Hedge’s description of the info graphic below may be a tad overdramatic (“sweatshop,” really?), it does make an interesting point about all those “great jobs” that have been added to the economy.

“[T]his is the ‘quality’ of job that is rising rapidly in the current economy (at the expense of traditional permanent jobs) to give the impression of an economic recovery,” the Hedge notes.

“There is no point in making an ethical judgment – work conditions are as they are,” Zero Hedge writes.

“Just as workers at FoxConn likely have far better conditions than their peers, at least in their view, so do these temp workers view their life as better than the alternative, which is unemployment. It is, as they say, what it is.”