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CounterPunch
January
2, 2003
Another Kick
in the Teeth for the Unemployed
by ALAN MAASS
Two long years. That's how long it's been since
Kimberly lost her job at a Los Angeles restaurant. She's looked
for work ever since. "But there's nothing going for me,"
she says. "I was on my way to a job at Los Angeles International
Airport. Then all of a sudden, September 11 happened, and that
was it."
Eight months ago, Kimberly moved back
to her hometown of Chicago with her kids. "I rely on family
now, and it's wearing them down," she says. "There's
no income at all for me, so they have to work harder for my family,
when they're supposed to be working harder for them."
That's a story that millions of other
working families know well. Kimberly is one of the 1.7 million
people classified by the government as long-term unemployed--out
of work for more than 26 weeks. Despite the media talk about
light at the end of the economic tunnel, that number continued
to grow throughout last year, and at a faster pace than the overall
jobless rate.
And last month, the hardest hit got another
kick in the teeth--when Bush and the Republicans refused to extend
an emergency program of federal jobless benefits for workers
whose state unemployment has run out.
Members of both parties claim that they'll
make emergency benefits their top priority when the new Congress
convenes in January. But even if the program is extended--and
some Republicans claim that it's too costly--workers who were
cut off will face a four- to six-week gap in checks. That can
be the difference between barely scraping by--and hitting bottom.
More than 8 million people are unemployed
in the U.S. today--about 6 percent of the labor force, according
to government statistics, a relatively low number compared to
previous recessions. But that's just the official count. Economists
agree that there are a substantial number of "discouraged
workers" who don't figure in the statistics--people who've
given up looking for work.
Thus, the growth of the U.S. workforce
began slowing in early 2000--a sure sign "of a weak labor
market in which potential job seekers avoid even attempting to
enter the workforce," according to the newly published State
of Working America 2002-03. Plus there's the underemployed--people
who make do with part-time work because they can't find full-time
jobs. All told, the real jobless rate is significantly higher
that the official figure.
The overall statistics also mask another
trend--the destruction of good-paying jobs with benefits. The
manufacturing sector of the U.S. economy has been hardest hit
by the recession--and responsible for the brunt of job losses.
According to Economic Policy Institute economist Jared Bernstein,
between March 2001 and November 2002, 1.5 million manufacturing
jobs were lost--accounting for almost all of the net total of
1.6 million jobs lost over the period.
People like William Blaine are taking
the hit. He took a job in North Carolina with Nortel at the height
of the telecommunications boom a few years ago. But when the
boom went bust and he was laid off, the 54-year-old William found
that jobs in his industry had dried up. Now he makes ends meet
with a part-time position at a boating store--run by his son.
The other job "opportunity" that he's considering?
Security guard. "You feel like someone has pulled the plug
on you," he told the Chicago Tribune.
For the victims of the layoff ax, there's
not much help available. In most states, unemployment benefits
cover just half of lost wages, or less--and they only last for
26 weeks. Compare that to France, where jobless workers get around
80 percent of their earnings for up to two years. And this is
for the lucky few who qualify.
During the mid-1970s recession, three-quarters
of laid-off U.S. workers got jobless benefits. Last year, only
43 percent of the unemployed got checks. Over the past three
decades, politicians have only added to restrictions on the unemployment
insurance system--requirements for hours worked, length of time
on the job and so on.
Thus, Chicago restaurant worker Rodney
Wilson has been out of work for a year. But he fell a couple
hundred dollars short of qualifying for benefits--so he's gone
empty-handed the whole time. "There isn't anything out there,"
he says. "I'm looking for anything I can get. But it's real
tough."
The unemployed themselves aren't the
only victims of unemployment. Employers know very well that job
insecurity strengthens their hand with workers still on the job.
Wage growth has slowed at all income levels, but especially at
the lower end of the scale, as a direct result of increasing
competition for scarce work.
And employers now take it for granted
that they can provide fewer benefits to workers. Health care
is an especially popular target for "cost-cutting."
Indeed, workers are less likely today to have employer-provided
health insurance than they were 30 years ago--and those who do
have it pay a bigger share of the cost.
Meanwhile, Corporate America is using
the recession to undermine the power of unions. For example,
telecommunications equipment maker Lucent Technologies claimed
poverty when it slashed nearly 1,000 union jobs at its North
Andover, Mass., plant this year. But at the same time, management
hired a labor contractor, Solectron, to fill jobs at the factory.
Masking tape on the plant floor marks the dividing line for union
and nonunion workers.
Whether they're working or laid-off,
Lucent workers are paying a steep price. But according to Ed
Peters, chief investment analyst for the Boston firm PanAgora
Asset Management, that's the way the free market is supposed
to work. As he told the Chicago Tribune, "We overinvested
not only in technology, but also in people."
Alan Maass is an editor of Socialist
Worker. He
can be reached at: maass@socialistworker.org
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