The hamburger-flipping mantra of the 1980s seems to be playing out at last. Back then, critics of the 1983 recovery claimed the new jobs being created were all, or mostly all, hamburger-flipping positions.

That scenario is closer to the truth now that we're deep into the new century.

A study released yesterday purports to show that, though 60 percent of the jobs lost during the Great Recession were mid-level, only 20 percent of replacement jobs fall into that category. In place of those better-paying positions, jobs paying from $7.69 to $13.83 an hour have made up some 58 percent of the new hires. (Mid-level jobs, according to the study, pay $21.13 an hour or higher.)

"The recovery continues to be skewed toward low-wage jobs, reinforcing the rise in inequality and America's deficit of good jobs," wrote Annette Bernhardt, policy co-director at the National Employment Law Project, which conducted the study.

Mid-level job losses, according to the study, affected construction workers, real estate rokers and data entry clerks, among others. In their place, the new economy is mostly hiring store clerks, laborers and home health care workers.