US – For years, the fast food industry has created jobs at a faster rate than the rest of the economy

Since the recession ended, we’ve seen a troublingly uneven recovery, in which many of the middle-income jobs lost from 2008 to 2010 have been replaced by low-wage jobs. And fast food jobs are a large reason why, outpacing the country’s overall job growth.

“Fast food is driving the bulk of the job growth at the low end — the job gains there are absolutely phenomenal,” Michael Evangelist, a policy analyst at the National Employment Law Project, an advocacy group, told The New York Times in April.

According to an NELP report, 44 percent of jobs added in the past four years have been low-wage jobs that pay workers around $10 an hour.

The majority of fast food workers aren’t teenagers, but real adults with real responsibilities.

Opponents of raising wages for fast food workers often say that those jobs are mostly for teenagers living with their parents who are just looking for some extra spending money. But that’s not true anymore.

Increasingly, fast food jobs are being filled by adults who need full-time work. According to an analysis of government data by the Center for Economic and Policy Research, 70 percent of fast-food workers are 20 or older these days.

Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor. Read the whole story at Next Time Someone Says Fast Food Isn’t A Real Job, Remember This.