U.S. Jobs Crisis Continues
by
Seth Sandronsky
Dissident Voice
March 17, 2003
Three
hundred and eight thousand. That’s the
official number of U.S. jobs that were lost in February, according to the Labor
Department.
It noted that “Job losses
were widespread, with retail trade and services posting especially large
declines.” And the skin color dimension
of U.S. unemployment was glaring.
The February jobless rate
for blacks was 10.5 percent versus 5.0 percent for whites. The last hired are the first to be fired.
So much for a color-blind
job market. The economics of racism is
alive and well in America.
Apparently, employment
security isn’t a part of the White House’s freedom program for the American
people. U.S. unemployment shows the real face of such freedom to the world.
In February, the
unemployment rate reached 5.8 percent versus 5.7 percent in January. Some 8.5 million Americans were out of work
both months.
Moreover, about 1.9 million
people were jobless for 27 weeks or longer in February. Such long-term joblessness was the fate of
22 percent of the nation’s unemployed workers, up from 15 percent in February
2002.
And 450,000 people were so
discouraged by the job market that they had given up seeking paid employment in
February, according to the Labor Department.
It had reported that there
were 372,000 discouraged workers last August.
Official statistics, of
course, tell only a partial story of the nation’s jobs crisis. Take some work places and their retired
workers.
What happens when private
and public employers don’t hire new workers to replace departing retirees? How many of these unreplaced jobs don’t show
up in the official statistics?
Being free from paid work
that covers the cost of living is no freedom at all. Joblessness is an effect of a market economy, as night follows
day.
Freedom isn’t about two
people fighting for one job. Being free
to compete on the market is a ruse.
Meanwhile, the American
people’s tax dollars are being used to attack foreign people to increase U.S.
geopolitical power. Such a social
organization isn’t a law of nature.
Moreover, the Bush
administration’s increased military spending isn’t creating a jobs boom for
American workers. A U.S. attack on Iraq
(then North Korea?) is no “solution” to the problem of domestic unemployment.
American workers out of a
job surely have a thing or two to say about the White House’s view of national
security. In the “land of the free and
the home of the brave,” these workers have an important story to tell.
Seth Sandronsky is a member of Sacramento/Yolo Peace
Action, and an editor with Because People Matter, Sacramento's progressive
newspaper. Email: ssandron@hotmail.com