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By Jesse Russell

During his State of the Union address, President George W. Bush cited that during the last 2 1/2 years 4.6 million jobs have been created. While a majority of metropolitan areas have recovered the 2.6 million jobs lost during the first two years of his presidency, a new report from the U.S. Conference of Mayors questions the quality of the new jobs. According to the report, titled “The Role of Metro Areas in the U.S. Economy” the new jobs pay, on average, $9,000 less per year than the jobs they replaced. The ten sectors that lost the most jobs by the end of 2003 paid an average wage of $43,629 per year, while the ten sectors with the largest jobs increases from 2004 through 2005 pay only $34,378--a 21 percent decline. The report also says that 99 out of 361 metro areas will not recover jobs before 2007 and could be waiting until 2015 before they reach full recovery. At the end of 2005, employment levels in 18 states, including Ohio and Wisconsin, were lower than in 2000. Three states--Michigan, Mississippi, and Massachusetts--are not expected to recover their lost jobs before the end of the decade.