They are reduced to limited tasks that are numbingly repetitive, potentially crippling and stripped of any meaningful skills or the chance to develop them. This article is based largely on a Wall Street Journal report in 1994 about how America's demands for prisons, recycling, low cholesterol chicken, and financial services have fueled the growth of some of the nation's harshest jobs. Some of these occupations will be familiar to you, though you probably haven't thought much about them. They are people who do the dirty work. Many have no way out.
Pay is poor and there is no way to get promoted.
They are caught in a trap. I apologize to the many other workers in other dead end jobs not acknowledged in this article. These jobs pay less than any other manufacturing industry except apparel. It is dangerous work. It is the nation's 11th most dangerous industry with an annual injury and illness incidence rate of 23.2 per 100 full-time workers.