In field like economics, in which industry pays a lot more than academia, you would be hard pressed to find a low-paid adjunct teaching economics anywhere. So, while it is unlikely that somebody with a PhD from, say, UIC, will get a TT job at Chicago or Berkeley, they have a very good chance of a TT job at one of the 300 or so colleges and universities that are ranked lower than UIC in Economics (as ranked by economists), and get a pretty good salary.
The article I cited “The Academic Origins of Economics Faculty” only looks at the origins of faculty at “T-90” research universities. There are more than 250 research universities in the USA and a few hundred great universities and colleges which are either undergrad-only of undergrad + masters, universities with limited PhD programs, and others.
Nobody with a PhD in economics from one of those 250 research universities will need to teach as an adjuncts for a pittance. There are economics faculty at CCs, but if they have a PhD in economics, they’re either TT or tenured. There is a good chance that their PhD is from a low-ranked program, but they are getting a pretty good salary, tenure is practically guaranteed, and they have decent benefits.
Most community college professors that I know are pretty happy with their jobs, often happier than those at four-year colleges.
The adjuncts in economics are much more likely to be found in top universities, they are generally high paid industry people, and they are usually getting a lot of money for teaching that one class.