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Not good news very clearly. Look for a new job. You will end up having to do it soon anyway by the sounds of it. Easier to find something while employed.
Could mean anything. It might be performance-related or it could be an issue with how he's monetizing your labor.
Performance-wise, if your work requires oversight then it's more expensive. Also if the company is being paid a fixed price for a project and you're using a lot of man-hours it's going to cost the company more than you bring in.
You should always ask for specifics when you get a comment like that >_>
Yes, it is bad news, because s/he obviously doesn't have a favorable opinion of you, but some jobs like receptionist aren't profit centers.
A receptionist is supposed to extend the ability of their boss to generate revenue, make complicated decisions, do skilled research, whatever. If your boss can land $100 worth of revenue for every hour he spends trying to land contracts, he is making money. If half of his time is spent doing secretarial stuff, that is 20 hours/week he is not generating income. With my example, secretarial work cost him $2000.
It would then make sense for him to hire a secretary. If you can reduce his secretarial hours to only 5/week, you have allowed him to earn an additional $1500, so if you are paid anything under that you are contributing to the company.
Since he is only paying you min wage (did you ever get paid?) it means that he isn't getting $320 of value out of you each week. That is a pretty low bar, so either you are really, really terrible at your job, or your boss is very ineffective and cannot use you to extend his expertise at all.
What does it mean? It means that you'd do well working in any government organization. You'd feel at home with your coworkers, wouldn't need to justify your existence or productivity, and can never ever be fired.
Cynthetik, are you in a small town or a major city? I know it's taking a while for some with your degree to find jobs coming out of school even in the Chicago area, so you just have to keep at it.
If there is another opportunity you can find, even if not in your field, it's probably best to get out of your current situation. This guy is cheating you out of money while threatening your job with his comments. Nobody needs that.
Most employees "cost" a business more than just their salary. This cost is sometimes called the "fully burdened" cost. It includes the employee's salary, additional payroll taxes paid by the employer (unemployment tax, employer's share of SSI/Medicare taxes), the employer's cost for providing benefits such as a healthcare plan and/or a retirement plan, and the cost of providing time off such as sick leave and vacation time.
In order for a business to be profitable, the revenue for the business has to exceed the total cost of doing business (which includes not only labor costs (the payroll), but also the cost of goods sold, taxes, license fees, real estate costs, etc.).
For employees that are more or less directly billed out (such as consultants), then an employee who can't be billed out at a rate higher than their burdened cost to the employer, then the employee is clearly costing the employer more than the employer is making on that employee. For employees who are not directly billed out, the employer usually has a plan or at least a concept of how much work he/she needs a given employee to do in order for that employee to be "justifying their pay." In those cases, a worker whose productivity is lower than expected could be said to be costing more than the employer is making on them. Finally, in cases where an employee has the opportunity to make mistakes that cost the company money to correct, even a productive employee may make expensive mistakes, resulting in that employee "costing the company more than they are making the company."
As suggested by others, if your employer is saying something like this about you, then you need to understand what your employer's concerns are and how you might enhance your value to them. If you don't, your employer is likely to find cause to terminate your employment.
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