While the country’s recessionary job losses skewed to middle- and higher-paying jobs, its job gains since then have skewed to lower-paying jobs.

That is the conclusion of an unsettling report from the National Employment Law Project.

America’s private payrolls shrank from January 2008 through February 2010, losing 8.84 million jobs on net. They have been growing every month since that nadir, adding 1.26 million jobs on net. (Public payrolls are another story — they’ve been falling over the last year.)

All this means, of course, that the private sector job market still has a long way to go before it returns to its previous peak. Worse, those jobs that have been created in the last year typically pay less than the jobs they’re replaced.

According to NELP:

Lower-wage industries (those paying $9.03 -$12.91 per hour) accounted for just 23 percent of job losses, but fully 49 percent of recent growth.

Midwage industries ($12.92 -$19.04 per hour) accounted for 36 percent of job losses, and 37 percent of recent growth.

Higher-wage industries ($19.05 -$31.40 per hour) accounted for 40 percent of job loss, but only 14 percent of recent growth.

These trends compare unfavorably to the last “jobless recovery” after the 2001 recession.

In the year after the job market hit bottom as a result of the 2001 downturn, almost half of the jobs lost had returned. By contrast, in the year after the job market’s trough in the most recent business cycle, only 14 percent of private payroll jobs have been recovered.

And the mix of new jobs created is not as good this time around. According to NELP: