America Has a Triple-Decker Jobs Crisis

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/economy/america-has-triple-decker-jobs-crisis

If you hear somebody talking about the U.S. “jobs problem,” ask them which one they mean. Let’s talk about three: First, even as unemployment has inched down, the economy has created barely enough jobs to match population growth. Second, this enormous labor-market “slack” has stifled workers’ bargaining power and kept wages low. Third, even with a “tighter” labor market, workers would still be in a weak bargaining position due to the policies of the last thirty-some years, which have undermined unions, the welfare state, and labor-market regulation.

First, the Great Recession has left the United States with an enormous jobs hole. The silver lining of declining unemployment—down from 10% to about 7.5% over the last few years—surrounds a gigantic dark cloud: The employment-to-population ratio fell dramatically during the recession and has hardly budged since. That’s because labor-force participation, the percentage of working-age individuals who are employed or looking for work, has plummeted. A stimulus too small to make up for the collapse in private spending and a premature turn toward deficit reduction have helped keep us in this jobs hole.

Next, high unemployment makes it hard for workers to bargain higher wages or better working conditions. Recoveries and booms bring lower unemployment and “tighter” labor markets, which increase workers’ bargaining power and should make it easier for them to demand (and win) improvements in pay and conditions. This effect typically kicks in, however, only when the unemployment rate gets quite low—below 5%—and the lethargic employment growth during the last four years means we’re a long way from there. With economic growth resuming but wages stagnant, corporate profits now account for a near-record percentage of total income. This helps explain why corporations have been content with policies allowing the crisis to drag on through years of lethargic “recovery.”

Finally, the lack of high-quality jobs is no mere cyclical problem. It has been a central problem for three decades. Mainstream economists tend to emphasize the ostensibly inexorable forces of globalization and technological change, insinuating that the lack of good jobs is an unavoidable fact of life.

[RC]

1. Start with changing the tax code so as not to reward companies for off shoring the jobs and equipmen

When they talk of jobs, we need to question what kind of jobs and whether they are Living Wage Jobs or not. Just jobs to make the number look good, is not cutting it as far as any real recovery is concerned.

[DeeDeeNY]

5. You nailed it

[Jasana]

2. Yes! This is where our congresscritters should be focusing...

but all I hear are the sound of crickets.

[pampango]

3. "attacks on labor unions, the weakening of the welfare state, and the rollback of labor regulations.

These factors are missing from the mantra that workers should just resign themselves to the new reality, that the “good jobs” are gone and never coming back

Whether a job is good or bad is not, for the most part, an inherent fact of the kind of work done. Manufacturing jobs became “good jobs”—in particular times and places—due to unionization, full-employment policies, labor-market regulations, etc. So-called good jobs in transportation and construction have not “gone” anywhere, but job quality in those sectors has declined due to deunionization, deregulation, and employers’ increasing use of contingent labor.

Meanwhile, so-called bad jobs in hospitality, maintenance, and other service occupations are not uniformly bad. As Paul Osterman and Beth Shulman note in Good Jobs America (2011), food-service workers in Las Vegas, where unions are relatively strong, make about $2 more per hour than in largely non-union Orlando. Hotel room cleaners in Vegas, meanwhile, make about $4 more per hour than in Orlando.

There is nothing that makes food service an intrinsically bad job, any more than something makes factory work or trucking intrinsically good.

The fault, in other words, lies not in our jobs, but in our politics.

Great article. Thanks for posting, xchrom.

[reformist2]

4. The reduced need to work ought to be a good thing. So why is it not???

I would argue it's the economic system that treats labor - and therefore, people - like a commodity. Which is crazy, because the main purpose of an economy should be to serve the people, not the other way around.

[Hydra]

9. The problem is that our system serves SOME people

At the top, and forces the rest to "justify their existence" by working more and more and getting less for it.

I agree with your assertion- the only reason we organize in larger groups as a species is so that we can all have a better quality of life. A small group of assholes always seem to show up to mess that simple idea up.

[Heywood J]

6. I'm surprised that you had time to read this

in between getting from one of your low-wage, no-benefit, part-time, permatemp jobs to the next. I suppose that you may have found the time to squeeze it in during your three hour one-way commute, but at least I know you weren't doing it on public transit...

[marmar]

7. k/r

[nashville_brook]

8. k and r

[bvar22]

10. This is the Number ONE crisis in America today.

Syria is just a minor distraction compared to the on going Bi-Partisan destruction of America's Working Class for the greater glory of the 1%.

The TPP is The Ring that Binds Them,
forged in the furnace of GREED.