More production spinoffs from the park's research efforts, which would create lower-wage jobs, may be near, said Paul B. Phelps, a specialist in economic development who studied the park for Congress's Office of Technology Assessment.

Still others are fleeing what they see as the increasingly unwelcoming atmosphere of Southern California, or they have left lower-wage jobs in Texas.

At the same time, the job base shifted in some places; lower-wage jobs replaced higher-wage ones.

Of these 10 million new jobs, I should point out, it is no longer true that most of them are part-time, lower-wage jobs.

The jobs now being created in the area are more of a mix, with higher-income jobs at companies like Pfizer and lower-wage jobs at the nearby casinos.

He criticized the changes taking place in the telephone industry, noting that call centres were creating lower-wage jobs in the industry.

"And those tend to be lower-wage jobs."

Fewer Jobs, Worse Jobs High-wage jobs with full benefits are losing ground to lower-wage jobs with fewer benefits, many of them part-time or temporary.

Because they often work part time at lower-wage jobs, women are less likely than men to have private health insurance coverage.

"The loss of high-paying defense jobs, being replaced by lower-wage retail and service jobs, certainly poses a threat to our living standard if we do nothing about it," she said.