NYT On “The Working Life”

Rachel Swarns’ New York Times series called The Working Life kicks off today, introducing us to Marianne Scarino, a 62-year-old woman who has been laid off twice in her role as a six figure-earning corporate manager and now works as an elementary school aide ($21k/year).

As Swarns covers in today’s piece, the weekly column about “working or not-working in New York” will offer much-needed coverage of the everyday people we don’t typically read about in the Styles Section:

I was born in this city — I grew up on Staten Island, not far from Ms. Scarino’s home — and I will be chronicling this unsettled economic landscape, writing about work, the workplace and the economy.

There will be stories of success, of reinvention and of people just getting by. But there will also be stories of options narrowing, hopes dimming.

Nationally, middle-class incomes are lower than they were 15 years ago, faring worse than over any such period since the 1940s. On Ms. Scarino’s block, the economic tremors are still rumbling, unsettling one family after another.

Photo: robinsan

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