From The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 8/8/03:
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/134130_herbert08.html


Employment situation even worse than numbers indicate

By BOB HERBERT
SYNDICATED COLUMNIST

The folks who put the voodoo back in economics keep telling us that
prosperity is just around the corner.

For the unemployed, that would mean more jobs.

Are there more jobs just around the corner?

This alleged economic upturn is not just a jobless recovery, it's a
job loss recovery.

The hemorrhaging of jobs in the aftermath of the recent "mild"
recession is like nothing the United States has seen in more than half
a century.

Millions continue to look desperately for work, and millions more have
given up in despair.

Stories have been rolling in for some time about the stresses and
misfortunes that are inevitably associated with long-term joblessness:
the bankruptcies, foreclosures and evictions, the dreams deferred, the
mental difficulties -- anxiety, depression -- the excessive drinking
and abuse of drugs, the family violence.

There are few things more miserable than to need a job and be unable
to find one.

How bad is it?

The Economic Policy Institute in Washington reported last week that
"since the business cycle expansion began in November 2001, payrolls
have contracted by 1 million (1.2 million in the private sector),
making this the weakest recovery in terms of employment since the
[Bureau of Labor Statistics] began tracking monthly data in 1939."

John A. Challenger, who runs the outplacement firm Challenger, Gray &
Christmas, said it is taking an average of 20 weeks for job seekers to
find employment, and many are unable to match their previous salary.
"Employers have all the cards," he said.

From The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 8/8/03:
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/134130_herbert08.html


Employment situation even worse than numbers indicate

By BOB HERBERT
SYNDICATED COLUMNIST

The folks who put the voodoo back in economics keep telling us that
prosperity is just around the corner.

For the unemployed, that would mean more jobs.

Are there more jobs just around the corner?

This alleged economic upturn is not just a jobless recovery, it's a
job loss recovery.

The hemorrhaging of jobs in the aftermath of the recent "mild"
recession is like nothing the United States has seen in more than half
a century.

Millions continue to look desperately for work, and millions more have
given up in despair.

Stories have been rolling in for some time about the stresses and
misfortunes that are inevitably associated with long-term joblessness:
the bankruptcies, foreclosures and evictions, the dreams deferred, the
mental difficulties -- anxiety, depression -- the excessive drinking
and abuse of drugs, the family violence.

There are few things more miserable than to need a job and be unable
to find one.

How bad is it?

The Economic Policy Institute in Washington reported last week that
"since the business cycle expansion began in November 2001, payrolls
have contracted by 1 million (1.2 million in the private sector),
making this the weakest recovery in terms of employment since the
[Bureau of Labor Statistics] began tracking monthly data in 1939."

John A. Challenger, who runs the outplacement firm Challenger, Gray &
Christmas, said it is taking an average of 20 weeks for job seekers to
find employment, and many are unable to match their previous salary.
"Employers have all the cards," he said.

"Not only are they sharpening their salary pencils, but the screening
of candidates is probably the toughest it has ever been."

The official jobless rate, now 6.2 percent, does not come close to
reflecting how grim the employment situation really is.

The official rate refers only to those actively seeking work.

It does not count the "discouraged" workers, who have looked for jobs
within the past 12 months but have given up because of the lack of
offers.

Then there are the involuntary part timers, who would like full-time
jobs but cannot find them.

And there are people who have had to settle for jobs that pay
significantly less than jobs they once held.

When you combine the unemployed and the underemployed, you are talking
about a percentage of the work force that is in double digits.

That's an awful lot of lost purchasing power for a society that needs
broad-based wage growth among its consumers to remain economically
viable.

Most Americans depend on their paychecks to get from one week to the
next. If you cut off that paycheck, everything tends to go haywire.

Right now there is no plan, no strategy for turning this employment
crisis around.

There is not even a sense of urgency.

At the end of July the Bush administration sent its secretaries of
commerce, labor and treasury on a bus tour of Wisconsin and Minnesota
to tell workers that better days are coming.

But they offered no real remedies, and the president himself went on a
monthlong vacation.

The simple truth is that the interests of the Bush administration's
primary constituency, corporate America, do not coincide with the
fundamental interests of workaday Americans.

On the business side of this divide, increased profits are realized by
showing the door to as many workers as possible, and squeezing the
remainder to the bursting point.

Productivity (based primarily on improvements in technology) is way
up.

Hiring, of course, is down.

Part-time and temporary workers are in; full-time workers with
benefits are out.

And then there's the ominous trend of sending higher-skilled jobs
overseas to such low-wage places as India and China, an upscale
reprise of the sweatshop phenomenon that erased so many U.S.
manufacturing jobs over the past quarter-century.

Working Americans need jobs just to survive.

But the Bush administration equates the national interest with
corporate interests, and in that equation workers can only lose.

There are ways to spark the creation of good jobs on a large scale in
the United States.

But that would require vision, a long-term financial investment and a
commitment at the federal level to the idea that it is truly in the
nation's interest to keep as many Americans as possible gainfully
employed.

______________________________________________

Georgie must be workin' hard down at the ranch, tryin' to come up with
answers for the unemployed. Well what else would he be doin' on
vacation for 35 days? Don't answer that.

Harry

From The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 8/8/03:
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/134130_herbert08.html


Employment situation even worse than numbers indicate

By BOB HERBERT
SYNDICATED COLUMNIST

The folks who put the voodoo back in economics keep telling us that
prosperity is just around the corner.

For the unemployed, that would mean more jobs.

Are there more jobs just around the corner?

This alleged economic upturn is not just a jobless recovery, it's a
job loss recovery.

The hemorrhaging of jobs in the aftermath of the recent "mild"
recession is like nothing the United States has seen in more than half
a century.

Millions continue to look desperately for work, and millions more have
given up in despair.

Stories have been rolling in for some time about the stresses and
misfortunes that are inevitably associated with long-term joblessness:
the bankruptcies, foreclosures and evictions, the dreams deferred, the
mental difficulties -- anxiety, depression -- the excessive drinking
and abuse of drugs, the family violence.

There are few things more miserable than to need a job and be unable
to find one.

How bad is it?

The Economic Policy Institute in Washington reported last week that
"since the business cycle expansion began in November 2001, payrolls
have contracted by 1 million (1.2 million in the private sector),
making this the weakest recovery in terms of employment since the
[Bureau of Labor Statistics] began tracking monthly data in 1939."

John A. Challenger, who runs the outplacement firm Challenger, Gray &
Christmas, said it is taking an average of 20 weeks for job seekers to
find employment, and many are unable to match their previous salary.
"Employers have all the cards," he said.

"Not only are they sharpening their salary pencils, but the screening
of candidates is probably the toughest it has ever been."

The official jobless rate, now 6.2 percent, does not come close to
reflecting how grim the employment situation really is.

The official rate refers only to those actively seeking work.

It does not count the "discouraged" workers, who have looked for jobs
within the past 12 months but have given up because of the lack of
offers.

Then there are the involuntary part timers, who would like full-time
jobs but cannot find them.

And there are people who have had to settle for jobs that pay
significantly less than jobs they once held.

When you combine the unemployed and the underemployed, you are talking
about a percentage of the work force that is in double digits.

That's an awful lot of lost purchasing power for a society that needs
broad-based wage growth among its consumers to remain economically
viable.

Most Americans depend on their paychecks to get from one week to the
next. If you cut off that paycheck, everything tends to go haywire.

Right now there is no plan, no strategy for turning this employment
crisis around.

There is not even a sense of urgency.

At the end of July the Bush administration sent its secretaries of
commerce, labor and treasury on a bus tour of Wisconsin and Minnesota
to tell workers that better days are coming.

But they offered no real remedies, and the president himself went on a
monthlong vacation.

The simple truth is that the interests of the Bush administration's
primary constituency, corporate America, do not coincide with the
fundamental interests of workaday Americans.

On the business side of this divide, increased profits are realized by
showing the door to as many workers as possible, and squeezing the
remainder to the bursting point.

Productivity (based primarily on improvements in technology) is way
up.

Hiring, of course, is down.

Part-time and temporary workers are in; full-time workers with
benefits are out.

And then there's the ominous trend of sending higher-skilled jobs
overseas to such low-wage places as India and China, an upscale
reprise of the sweatshop phenomenon that erased so many U.S.
manufacturing jobs over the past quarter-century.

Working Americans need jobs just to survive.

But the Bush administration equates the national interest with
corporate interests, and in that equation workers can only lose.

There are ways to spark the creation of good jobs on a large scale in
the United States.

But that would require vision, a long-term financial investment and a
commitment at the federal level to the idea that it is truly in the
nation's interest to keep as many Americans as possible gainfully
employed.

______________________________________________

Georgie must be workin' hard down at the ranch, tryin' to come up with
answers for the unemployed. Well what else would he be doin' on
vacation for 35 days? Don't answer that.

Harry