A report analyzing the state of working in Sonoma County forecasts an ongoing struggle for low-wage employees. In particular, the report shows a dominance of jobs in the service industry with low pay and few opportunities to move up.
According to the State of Working Sonoma 2018, “The future of work paints a grim picture for Sonoma County through 2024, not because there won’t be jobs, but because those jobs will be woefully inadequate for workers to provide for their families. In other words, job growth is expected to continue reproducing a labor market with a missing middle and fewer and fewer rungs on the ladder for true upward mobility and opportunities for prosperity.”
The report, written by researcher Jesús Guzmán of Healdsburg, predicts that over the next few years Sonoma County will see dramatic growth in the number of working poor households, which the report defines as making below $50,200 for a family of four (or 200 percent of the federal poverty threshold).
“One in five families in Sonoma County, and 40 percent of Latino families, are the working poor and receive wages and annual incomes well below self-sufficiency levels,” the report stated.
“We see a tale of two Sonomas,” said North Bay Jobs with Justice Co-chair Marty Bennett.
To read the full article, written by E.I. Hillin, Staff Writer, e.hillin@sonomawest.com click HERE
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