6 fast-growing jobs that don't pay much-By Christine DiGangi

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Low-wage jobs employ close to half of the U.S. workforce (42%), and they're poised to employ millions more Americans over the next several years. As calls for a higher minimum wage grow louder from workers in the fast food and retail industries, it's worth looking at exactly who these people are, how many of them there are and how much they make.

The National Employment Law Project, a wage-advocacy group, released a report this month called "The Growing Movement for $15," in which it analyzes the effects of low wages on those who earn them. Some of the largest occupations with workers earning a median wage of $15 an hour or less, six of the fields are among those projected to see the greatest growth by 2022, according to 2012 data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the most recent available.
Personal Care Aides
Number of people employed in 2012: 1.19 million
Projected occupation growth from 2012 to 2022: 580,800 jobs (up 48.8%)
Median hourly wage (2014 National Employment Law Profect estimate): $10.35
Share of workers making less than $15 an hour (2014 NELP estimate): 77.9%
Nursing Assistants
Number of people employed in 2012: 1.48 million
Projected occupation growth from 2012 to 2022: 312,200 jobs (up 21.1%)
Median hourly wage: $12
Share of workers making less than $15 an hour: 72%
Janitors & Cleaners, Except Maids & Housekeepers
Number of people employed in 2012: 2.32 million
Projected occupation growth from 2012 to 2022: 280,000 jobs (up 12.1%)
Median hourly wage: $10.80
Share of workers making less than $15 an hour: 75.2%
Materials — Shipping, Movers & Packers
Number of people employed in 2012: 2.20 million:
Projected occupation growth from 2012 to 2022: 241,900 jobs (up 11%)
Median hourly wage: $14
Share of workers making less than $15 an hour: 54.9%
Combined Food Preparation & Serving Workers, Including Fast Food
Number of people employed in 2012: 2.97 million
Projected occupation growth from 2012 to 2022: 421,900 jobs (up 14.2%)
Median hourly wage: $9
Share of workers making less than $15 an hour: 88.3%
Retail Salespeople
Number of people employed in 2012: 4.45 million
Projected occupation growth from 2012 to 2022: 434,700 jobs (up 9.8%)
Median hourly wage: $12.65
Share of workers making less than $15 an hour: 58.1%

While income has no direct bearing on a consumer's credit standing, a low wage can make it difficult for people to pay bills on time, keeping their credit reports free of collection accounts or other negatives, like high credit card balances or delinquent loans. For consumers already in debt, managing day-to-day expenses in addition to paying down outstanding balances can be even more challenging, leaving those consumers with poor credit for years. No matter how much you make, it's important to carefully budget for expenses and make a plan in order to build or rebuild your credit standing and reap the benefits that come with it — of course, that's easier said than done, particularly for low-income consumers. (You can see how your debts and your payment history affect your credit by getting your credit scores, which you can do for free on Credit.com.)

Culled from credit.com

Ericsson sees China growth, slow U.S. as first-quarter profit lags

Ericsson's flag is seen at the company's headquarters in Stockholm March 11, 2015. REUTERS/Jonas …

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Mobile telecom equipment maker Ericsson said it expected sales in its key North American market to stay sluggish while China would see continued network rollouts as it posted first-quarter operating profit below expectations on Thursday.
Ericsson said surging data traffic would mean a further need for upgrades of networks in North America, where rollouts of the latest generation of 4G/LTE networks are largely done and spending at telecom operators has shifted to capacity upgrades.
"However, with current visibility, we anticipate the fast pace of 4G deployments in Mainland China to continue and the North American mobile broadband business to remain slow in the short term," Ericsson said in a statement.
Profits where weighed down by a larger share of lower-margin network rollouts in China while the share of more profitable software-based capacity upgrades in North America declined.
Operating profit was 2.1 billion Swedish crowns ($A 311 million) compared to 2.6 billion in the year-ago quarter and below a mean forecast of 3.3 billion crowns in a Reuters poll of analysts.

Revenue at its networks unit, which accounts for just over half of its sales, fell 9 percent on a like-for-like basis after a 7 percent drop in the fourth quarter.

Sales at Ericsson, the world number one mobile network equipment maker, were 53.5 billion crowns, in line with a forecast of 53.2 billion. The gross margin was 35.4 percent against a mean forecast of 37.1 percent.

(Reporting by Sven Nordenstam and Olof Swahnberg; editing Alistair Scrutton)

Culled from Reuters

Americans are deluded about when they will retire-By Mandi Woodruff

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Americans may be feeling more confident than ever about their chances of securing a comfortable retirement, but there’s one thing we are seriously delusional about: when we will finally call it quits.

There’s a big gap between when workers expect they will retire and when people who’ve actually retired say they left the workforce, according to the latest retirement confidence survey from the Employee Benefit Research Institute. Half of retirees say they retire earlier than they planned.
Fewer than one in 10 workers say they expect to retire before age 60, when in fact 36% of retirees say they stopped working before 60. Comparatively, only 29% of workers retired between the ages of 60 and 64 and only 9% retired at the traditional age of 65. The odds of making it until age 70 and still working — which more than one-quarter of workers say they want to do — are even slimmer. A mere 6% manage to last that long.
“Most retirees retired earlier than they planned predominantly due to health problems,” says Luke Vandermillen, vice president of the Principal Financial Group, a co-sponsor of the study. “All you can do is try to control what you have planned, how you have saved, and whether you’ve taken steps to prepare for retirement as best you can.”
What’s clear is that the vast majority of premature retirees did not leave work because they wanted to. Sixty percent of premature retirees cited health issues or a disability as the reason. Others had little choice in the matter — their company downsized or closed, leaving them out of a job (27%), or they needed to care for a spouse or family member (22%).
When people THINK they will retire...

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Source: The Employee Benefit Research Institute

When retirees say they ACTUALLY retired: 

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Source: The Employee Benefit Research Institute

Stats like these don’t exactly jibe with the retirement narrative that emerged in the years following the Great Recession. The general prescription for older workers whose nest eggs were damaged by the financial crisis was simply to lower work longer and do more with less. Nearly 70% of workers say they plan on continuing to work part-time to keep money coming in after they retire. But in reality, only 23% of today’s retirees report working for pay in retirement.

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The expectation gap is more unsettling when you consider why people are so keen on dragging out their working years. Although nearly all retirees who are working in retirement say they do so because they enjoy it, more than half admitted they needed the extra cash to make ends meet. And about 40% said their savings and investments had taken a dive.

There can be real financial consequences for workers who underestimate their retirement age — they may not save enough to last them through their golden years.

“Retirees who retire earlier than planned are more likely than those who retire when expected or later to say they are not confident about having enough money for a comfortable retirement,” the report says, “or about paying for basic expenses, medical expenses, and long-term care expenses

The silver lining

This year’s EBRI survey wasn’t all bad news for retirees. Workers today are feeling more confident about their odds of securing a comfortable retirement than they have in years.

Twenty-two percent of workers report being very confident about retirement, up from 13% in 2013, and nearly as high as the rate among workers before the recession hit. And nearly half of workers (48%) are taking proactive steps to calculate how much they need to save for retirement now in order to be prepared later, up from 44% in 2014.

You don’t need to hire a pricey financial planner to get your number. EBRI offers a free retirement savings tool, as well as Bankrate, the AARP, and Kiplinger.
Unsurprisingly, it is these workers who have taken steps to prepare for retirement — contributing to a 401(k) or IRA — who are more likely to be confident, EBRI found.
“These people get to see their retirement accounts growing and they’re the ones who have taken more active steps than those who don’t have access [to] or haven’t chosen to fund an IRA,” Vandermillen says.

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Source: The Employee Benefit Research Institute

Workers who have some kind of a retirement plan set up are 10 times as likely to have saved $100,000 or more than those who don’t have one, EBRI found. In fact, the vast majority of people without a dedicated retirement savings account have less than $1,000 saved.

“If you don’t’ have access to a plan, it becomes harder to go out and access one on your own,” he says. “But if you have one and you automate it, set it and forget it, you are much more likely to start accumulating savings.”  

Culled rrom yahoo finance