Vol. 72/No. 50      December 22, 2008

The official unemployment rate rose to 6.7 percent, two-tenths of a percent above the October figure. This doesn’t count 420,000 workers who the government claims left the labor force in November. These are workers who reportedly gave up looking for a job. If they were counted, the official unemployment rate would be closer to 7 percent.

Part-time workers, most of whom want full-time jobs, rose to 7.3 million, up from 6.7 million the previous month and 60 percent over the last year.

Since the start of the recession in December 2007, the bosses have slashed 1.9 million jobs—two-thirds of these in the last three months. Included in the latest government statistics are revised figures that sharply boost the number of jobs eliminated by employers in September and October. The October figure was adjusted to 320,000 from the previously reported 240,000. In September, an announced 284,000 job cuts is now 403,000.

The number of persons unemployed is 10.3 million, according to the labor department. This includes 2.2 million who have been without jobs for at least 27 weeks.

However, the figures do not count 1.9 million workers—a jump of 637,000 from last month—who the government claims are “marginally attached” to the workforce. This includes 608,000 categorized as too discouraged to look for work and 1.3 million who did not search for a job in the last four weeks, according to the government.

Many changes in the method of determining who is unemployed were instituted under the Clinton administration with an aim to mask rising unemployment.  
 
Industrial contraction
Manufacturing jobs declined in November by 85,000; construction by 82,000; retail trade by 91,000; and temporary employment fell more than 78,000. In an exception to the downward trend, health-care employment rose by 34,000. The government added 7,000 jobs.

In early December a growing number of companies announced further job cuts. These include 12,000 at AT&T; 5,000 at Dow Chemical, which is closing 20 plants, temporarily idling another 180 plants, and eliminating an additional 6,000 contract workers; 2,500 at Dupont, which is temporarily closing more than 100 factories and cutting 4,000 contractors; and 1,100 at paper maker AbitibiBowater, which is closing mills in Canada, Alabama, and Tennessee.

U.S. Steel is laying off 3,500 workers as it idles an iron-ore mining and pelletizing facility in Keewatin, Minnesota, and two steel mills—Great Lakes Works near Detroit and Granite City Works near St. Louis. The copper industry’s largest employer in Arizona—Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold—is laying off 600 miners in addition to hundreds of contract workers who have already been given pink slips.

In response to the growing jobless rolls, President-elect Barack Obama promised measures that he said “will help save or create 2.5 million jobs” by January 2011. Offering few details, he said this would include investment in public infrastructure, installing energy-saving light bulbs, and replacing old heating systems in federal buildings.

In other news, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that worker productivity increased by 1.3 percent from July through September. This takes place as employers cut jobs and reduce workers’ hours, forcing fewer workers to produce more goods and services through greater speedup, with more on-the-job injuries and deaths.

Claiming they have to eliminate some $97 billion in budget deficits over the next two years, state and local governments across the country are making deep cuts in health, education, and other important social services.

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 38 states plan spending cuts of $32 billion in current budgets and $65 billion for the next fiscal year.

Cuts being considered include slashing $1 billion in school funding in Washington State over the next two years; eliminating up to $2.5 billion from California schools and community colleges this school year; a 25 percent increase in fees for college students in Nevada; and a tuition raise this spring of $545 at the State University of New York.

In Pennsylvania, more than 13,000 nonunion state employees will not get raises due in 2009. Some 162,000 children may be cut from a state health-care program in California. Tennessee authorities are planning to eliminate 1,200 mentally ill persons from the state’s health-care program. In Rhode Island 1,000 persons could be dropped from the Medicaid program.

In another development, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported December 5 that a record 1.35 million homes were in foreclosure in the third quarter. That’s a 76 percent increase from a year ago. One out of every 10 homeowners is behind on their mortgage or already facing foreclosure, the association reported.
 
 
Related articles:
New attacks on workers loom with auto bailout  
 
 
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