American unemployment
Lower, not hire
How jobless is this recovery?
Aug 12th 2010 | Washington, dc
THE American economy is in unfamiliar territory. Not since records began has so
deep a recession been followed by so shallow a recovery in employment. New jobs
figures, released on August 6th, tell the tale. In July the economy added just
12,000 jobs after adjusting for temporary census work-too few to keep up with
population growth or to reduce the unemployment rate. Slightly fewer Americans
are working now, a full year into recovery, than when the recession ended in
the middle of 2009.
A comparison with previous recoveries is unflattering (see chart). Hiring was
weaker in the aftermath of the relatively mild downturns of 1990-91 and 2001,
when the unemployment rate topped out at 7.8% and 6.3% respectively. But this
recession, in which the unemployment rate hit 10.1%, was much more severe. From
peak to trough more than 8m jobs were lost. As many Americans are working now
as in November 1999.
Severe recessions typically produce strong labour-market recoveries. Employment
sprang back by 3.5% in the 12 months following the end of the deep 1981-82
downturn. When the economy started growing again in March 1933 the employment
bounceback was springier still. No such turnaround has emerged this time. The
American economy has seen downturns this severe and recoveries this jobless but
never the one on top of the other.
If growth continues, it may soon lead to more hiring. The second quarter of
2010 brought an end to a run of five consecutive quarters of extraordinary
productivity growth as firms generated more output with fewer workers. That
strategy may now be running out of road. Between April and June businesses
sharply increased the number of hours worked by employees, which is often a
prelude to hiring new workers. But there is an awful lot of ground to make up.
http://www.economist.com/node/16792940?story_id=16792940
(JAI: Plank #1 of the People's Campaign is "Jobs for all at a union wage":
The May 19th Movement, named for the day being the day of the group's first
meeting as well as also being the birthdates of Malcolm X, Ho Chi Minh,
Augusto Sandino, Lorraine Hansberry and Yuri Kochiyama, is dedicated to the
development of a local independent political party with the express purpose
of finding, running and electing working class candidates to office in Los
Angeles to represent the interests of the poor and the working poor.
To subscribe to the May 19th listserve send an e-mail to
[email protected]
The planks of the platform could form the basis of committees:
1.) the right to a job for all wanting to work at a ''union--wage'' (Jobs
committee)
2.) the right to housing and an end to involuntary homelessness (Housing)
3.) the right to free and quality health-care
(Healthcare)
4.) the right to free education up to the person's ability
(Ediucation)
5.) the right to participate in real job-training so as to dramatically improve
the skill levels off the unemployed, the underemployed and, those who are for
now, unemployables
(Could go under Jobs or Education)
6.) the right of a worker to go to where he/she can best provide for themselves
and their families (International)
7.) the right to municipal voting whereby the qualification for the franchise
is residency (and not what is called 'citizenship'). (Franchise)..
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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