DECLINE SEEN IN STATE'S MIDLEVEL JOBS.

Byline: Larry D. Hatfield San Francisco Examiner 

California's deep recession of the past several years has seen a growth of both high-paid professional jobs and low-paid service jobs but a substantial decline in the number of jobs held by the ``anxious middle,'' according to a study by the state controller's office.

As a result, the change in the state's industrial mix since recovery started may be contributing to a widening of the wage gap between the rich and poor in California.

The conclusions, contained in the most recent issue of Controller's Quarterly, published by Controller Kathleen Connell, underline other recent studies by the California Public Policy Institute and the U.S. Census Bureau that showed dramatic increases in income separating rich and poor.

While the other studies looked at income levels, and offered only general opinions on the cause of the widening gap, the controller's analysis was of job growth.

``Knowing where jobs are expanding or declining is critical to understanding why income levels have become so polarized,'' said Linda Carlson, spokeswoman for Connell. ``The (controller's) research revealed job growth at the low and the high ends of the wage scale, not in the middle.

``This is significant because it helps explain why, with economic indicators showing that overall personal income has risen in California, polls show a growing number of people are worried about job security and paying their bills.

``The job base of the `anxious middle' is shrinking.''

The controller's study, based on a sampling of about 5,000 California households, showed that by industry, recession job losses from 1990 to 1995 were concentrated in durable manufacturing, construction and finance, insurance and real estate.

On the other hand, the post-recession recovery has seen increases primarily in the service sector, with the major share of growth in medical, personal, educational and professional services.

By occupation, the recession reduced the number of people who worked in production and repair occupations as well as workers in sales, while the number of people who identify themselves as executives, professionals and personal service workers, which includes food and health service workers, showed large increases.

``Since executive and professional occupations typically are higher paid, and personal service workers generally receive lower wages, these changes in work-force composition have exacerbated the polarization of income levels,' the study concludes.

The analysis showed an overall decline in jobs with wages in the $30,000 to $80,000 range from 1990 to 1995, with increases in the number of jobs paying less than $30,000 and more than $80,000.

The study also showed a disturbing trend in another area: hours worked.

The number of people working a 36- to 40-hour week - the typical full-time job and a bedrock indicator of the middle class - showed significant decline, while the number working fewer than 20 hours showed a marked increase.

Overall, the number of workers who reported that they usually worked less than a 40-hour week increased from 13 percent of the employed population to 15 percent, at least partially explaining the growth in the number of lower-income workers.