All jobs not created equal

What the pay isMedian annual salary for all occupations in the various industry sectors identified by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics for 2014. / Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
What the pay isMedian annual salary for all occupations in the various industry sectors identified by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics for 2014. / Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

The New England Economic Partnership economic forecast, detailed in this week’s Op-Ed piece by Bryant University economist Edinaldo Tebaldi, predicts that while job growth will occur in Rhode Island over the next few years, it will be uneven across different industry sectors.

What the forecast does not do, however, is connect how much jobs in each of those sectors pays. The four industries that are forecast to have the largest increase in the number of jobs in Rhode Island from 2014-2018 are: Leisure & Hospitality, +5,900; Professional & Business Services, +4,600; Financial Activities, +3,300; and Education & Health Services, +2,900.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics revealed the median annual salaries for the component parts of each of these four sectors, and although taking a median of the medians is not an exact view into each of the four areas, it provides a good estimate of just what the job growth that will happen will mean to the Ocean State.

While the Leisure & Hospitality sector is expected to show the largest growth for the state, it also has the lowest salary among the four categories, $22,580. The federal poverty guideline for household income for the 48 contiguous states and the District of Columbia is $11,770 for a single person, $15,930 for two people, $20,090 for three people and $24,250 for a household of four.

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HousingWorks RI recently reported that a household earning less than $30,000 per year could not afford to purchase the median-priced, single-family home in any Rhode Island community.

Not all sectors have such a low median income level, as the charts reveal. But it’s not a good thing that the category expected to show the largest job growth in the state is the one with a median near-poverty wage. •

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