Bob Moore reports, via his El Paso Matters twitter feed, that the Bureau of Labor Statistics says that things in El Paso are bad and getting worse.
Important new @BLS_gov economic data out today: average weekly wage in El Paso County (TX) was $759 in the first quarter of 2019, ranking 347th among the 356 largest counties tracked. And the wage gap with the national and state averages is getting worse.
The average weekly wage in Q1 2019 in El Paso increased by 1.2% over the same period in 2018, less than half the national average increase of 2.8%. El Paso’s wage growth ranked 283rd out of 356 counties, according to @BLS_gov.
That shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone in El Paso looking for work, or trying to pay their bills. What kind of jobs are there in El Paso? (Seriously. I’m asking for a friend.)
For entry level workers, and everyone else, the choices are retail and service industry.
The word on street is that the biggest major at UTEP is Criminal Justice, because with a Criminal Justice degree, you might get on with the Border Patrol, or another of our burgeoning law enforcement agencies, and be able to stay in El Paso.
Also, please note that while El Paso’s wage growth was 1.2% on the year, the County Commissioners Court is giving themselves a 20% pay increase.
And, no end in sight to the gouging of El Paso Tax Payers. We have been totally misused and abused by all of our locally elected representatives.
I’m pretty sure Bob Moore’s Twitter account is appropriately called “El Paso Fatters”. You might want to check that.