U.S. workers' fears rise as jobs are lost and pay lags

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.iht.com/articles/108521.html

Even though the U.S. recession officially ended nearly two years ago, polls show that American workers are feeling stressed and shaky because the United States continues to register month after month of job losses and wages are rising more slowly than inflation.

One factor above all has fueled the insecurity: The country has lost 2.7 million jobs over the past three years. The recovery has been so weak since the recession ended in November 2001 that the nation's payrolls are down by one million jobs from the time economic growth resumed. The current economic expansion, in fact, is the worst on record in terms of job growth. The average length of unemployment, more than 19 weeks, spiked this summer to its highest level in two decades.

"American workers are doing very badly," said Carl van Horn, director of the Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University in New Jersey. "All the trends are in the negative direction. There's high turnover, high instability, a reduction in benefits and a declining loyalty on the part of employers. At the same time, expectations for productivity and quality are going up. It's a bad situation from a worker's standpoint."

In August, a Gallup poll found that 81 percent of Americans thought that now was a bad time to try to find a quality job, equaling the highest percentage found since Gallup began regularly asking the question two years ago.

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[Mountainman]

1. Well great news since I was laid off last week

I wonder when people will put two and two together and start to vote for a change in leadership or will they continue to remain like domesticated sheep?

[Nottingham]

2. I don't know who says the recession is Over but its NOT!

The American Worker is in a Depression!

Thanks to BUSH!

But hey the Rich people are smiling!

:bounce:

[kysrsoze]

10. I think you're on to something big

I never imagined so many people, including myself, would hate their jobs so much. Like a number of people I know and work with, I have an awful time getting up for work every day. We're all being treated like absolute sh*t and it seems like it's OK for the corporate world to do that. After having our coffee taken away, work travel eliminated, reimbursement for cellular calls eliminated, refusal to repair/replace our broken microwave, jacked up insurance costs, etc., I don't know what else they can take except maybe our souls, which I'm sure they're trying to figure out.

I couldn't have imagined the backlash on workers, yet the people at the top don't even feel it. There's no accountability, no loss of income and no chance of getting fired at those levels unless you do something illegal and are actually CAUGHT.

We're having jobs outsourced to other countries like mad. That now includes testers, so the people in my org have had to have an interpreter on conference calls b/c they literally cannot understand what the person is saying.

F*ck this corporate world we live in.

[Nottingham]

11. This has Happened Before! Workers will have to Mass Strike!

as they did in Poland and Russian and other countries!

If the conditions get to intolerable which they are getting there fast!

I see a Mass Worker Stike! Imagine this United States completely shut down for a day! It could happen. Look at your History Books and when the People lose All their possesions and having nothing to lose.
They will strike like you haven't believed. Remember those ships
waiting to get into California by the Ship Workers strike

that came to a Halt!

I really see the American Worker getting a Belly full.
and when the Most Productive Worker stops working the shit is gonna hit the fan.

Its coming cause Bush is pushing the American Worker to the Max

I see unemployment getting to 10 % if this greedy SOB does what he wants. Thats the one thing Bush is scared of THE WORKER!

:bounce: Thats Why we have LABOR DAY!

[kysrsoze]

12. Yeah, imagine when the white collars start striking too.

That will come at this rate. Boeing management already did it.

[fortyfeetunder]

17. It was the Boeing engineers who struck

The managers, well, I'll put it this way, the McBoeing* managers sure helped make the decision to strike very easy....best damn unpaid vacation I ever had.



*McBoeing: a derogatory term used to address Boeing senior management, which implies they are run by the former McDonnell Douglas management.

[InkAddict]

15. If You Mean the Official Number at 10%

then that would mean it would really be about 25% plus additional prison population w/privatized work, and the unemployable, disabled, children, elderly who require an inordinate amount of services (not rendered)thus forcing even more to stay put, what's the percentage at now?

[liberalmuse]

3. This is the first time in my lifetime...

that I've been really nervous about what the future holds. I'm almost scared, and I only just realized this a couple days ago. So many people are losing their jobs, and the Bush administration is cutting the safety net. I don't know...I want to be optimistic, but honestly, I haven't been since the fiasco on Nov. 7th, 2000. I've had this horrible sense of foreboding ever since that night, most likely because things didn't go the way they were supposed to. I don't like being afraid for the future, and for this country.

[NNN0LHI]

8. Then don't read my latest post in the GD forum.

Because that will put you over the edge.

Don

[InkAddict]

16. No kidding!

then factor in the post re: Venezula.

[alfredo]

4. You got to write letters to the editor. talk about the bad

economy, the hostile attitude of the Bushitters towards our needs. Remind them too that the GOP didn't even hire American workers to man the phone banks. they outsourced them to India.

[mhr]

5. See My Letter To The Editor

Here,

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=114&topic_id=1141

[Kbowe]

6. What the hell did Bush mean by "retraining workers?"

For what jobs will they be retrained? America already has a well-trained workforce that can perform most any task necessary from the simplist to the most complicated and technical. Who needs to be retrained and for what jobs?

How is it that we can spend billions on rebuilding Iraqi infrastructure and shcools and can't do that here in America where affordable housing for the poor and elderly is needed, the rail system needs massive overhauling, highways and bridges need repair, and our rivers and other waterways need to be cleaned up? I just don't get it! Bush can stand before a union and speak nonsense and the media pretends that he said something great!

[cthrumatrix]

7. this is the time for "doublespeak"..promises...promises..promises...

He's had his chance and clearly doesn't give a rat's ass about the common worker....the puppet has spoken...and he is owned by the corporations

[drscm]

13. Many skilled laborers will probably have to be retrained

for the * economy.

Flipping burgers is not as easy as it looks.

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

14. We're going feudal, dude!

If this trend continues, in twenty years we'll all be mowing yards and keeping house for a few thousand corporate CEOs who manage companies based in 3rd world countries.

[avtho]

9. Recession ended 2 years ago???????

Dang! I thought it was just getting a good start........

[Boreas]

18. "A fundamental change is under way..."

"... in the nation's economy, a change in which the old rules and expectations no longer apply. In time, that change will force cultural and political adjustments of a magnitude that are difficult to imagine and will be painful to implement."


http://www.ajc.com/opinion/content/opinion/bookman/index.html

[study_war_no_more]

19. beware of stealth and wealth

Neomorlocks have officially taken over.
Is it time for a revolution now?