Demand is strong for day laborers (but the workers still lose)

[Roland99]

http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050605/NEWS01/506050450

Every weekday, employment agency vans drive by to pick up workers. Sometimes it's for construction or factory work, sometimes it's cleaning up after a sports event.

Many of the workers are homeless and few have job skills, so their best shot is temporary employment agencies that can offer work -- even if only for a day.

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West said that even though more agencies are hiring day laborers, there is still competition for the $6-to-$7-per-hour jobs. That's what got him up for the van. If he waited until the sun was shining, someone else could have gotten the work.

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Workers need to make about $11 per hour to afford a two-bedroom apartment in Louisville, Gordon said, and "the jobs that we're seeing aren't paying that."

And the employees receive no benefits.

So, the employers are making out like bandits by only hiring people on an as-needed basis and paying zero benefits. Is this a recovering economy? The GDP is still healthy above 3% but who, other than corporate execs and shareholders, is making money?