Sept. 3—As Labor Day approaches, 10 million unemployed U.S. workers still are struggling to find jobs—or have given up looking for jobs, according to August unemployment figures released today by the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
The 144,000 new jobs created in August fall far short of many economists’ predictions and the White House promise of 306,000 new jobs each month when it pushed through the most recent tax cuts. The Bush administration promised in February 2002 that its tax cuts would create some 6 million new jobs between January 2001 and July 2004. Instead, the economy has lost nearly 1 million jobs since President George W. Bush took office in 2001, making it almost certain Bush will become the first president since Herbert Hoover and the Great Depression to end his term with a net job loss.
And increasingly, workers are finding that most of the new jobs being created do not pay as well as the jobs they lost and do not offer health care or retirement security—a trend many analysts see as long-term, according to a new AFL-CIO report, Job Quality: Here to Stay?
“America and America’s families will not prosper if our job market is dominated by low-wage Wal-Mart-type jobs that don’t provide benefits and can’t support families,” says AFL-CIO President John J. Sweeney. “The prolonged jobs crisis has diminished the hopes of skilled workers, even those with multiple degrees, who have watched the decline of quality jobs because of economic policies that benefit corporations over workers.”
2.7 Million Manufacturing Jobs Lost Since Bush Took Office
The nation’s manufacturing workers especially have been hit hard. Although some 22,000 manufacturing jobs were created last month, more than 2.7 million total manufacturing jobs have been lost under Bush’s watch. At the current pace, it would take more than 14 years to restore manufacturing employment levels to where they were when Bush took office. Meanwhile, the decline in the number of good information industry jobs also continued, with 11,000 positions lost last month. And the slowdown in retail sales, a symptom of consumers’ uneasiness, was reflected in the loss of 11,300 retail jobs.
The official unemployment rate remained essentially unchanged in August, dipping slightly to 5.4 percent, though this slight decrease was primarily because 150,000 more people dropped out of the job market. The unemployment rate for Latinos worsened, dropping from 6.8 percent in July to 6.9 percent in August, and African American unemployment improved slightly, from 10.9 percent in July to 10.4 percent in August.
Analysts say the jobless rate could worsen in coming months. Last week, new applications for unemployment benefits rose to a five-month high as layoffs related to Hurricane Charley mounted, BLS reported.
Initial jobless claims increased for a second week in a row, climbing by 19,000 to 362,000 in the week ended Aug. 28. That marked the highest level since the week ended April 10. BLS estimates slightly less than half of the increase in jobless claims resulted from disruptions caused by the hurricane.
The average length of unemployment also continues to increase. Last month, the average duration of unemployment increased to 19 weeks or nearly five months, up from 18.6 weeks in July.
More U.S. Workers Lack Health Care, While CEO Pay Rises
The latest figures released Aug. 26 by the U.S. Census Bureau show 1.3 million more adults and children lived in poverty in 2003 than in 2002, while those without health insurance increased by 1.4 million. The number of individuals living in poverty worsened for the third straight year in 2003. Some 35.8 million people are poor, defined as having an income of less than $18,810 for a family of four, up from 34.5 million in 2002.
At the same time, nearly 45 million people lacked health coverage in 2003, up from 43.5 million in 2002—the highest number of uninsured Americans on record. Despite an overall economic recovery, median family income dropped from $43,381 to $43,318, demonstrating that “clearly the benefits of this growth have failed to reach middle- and lower-income families,” says Lawrence Mishel, president of the nonprofit Economic Policy Institute.
Meanwhile, a new study shows the economy has been very good for CEOs at companies that send jobs overseas. The study by the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) and United for a Fair Economy (UFE) shows the average compensation for CEOs of companies that outsourced the most service jobs rose nearly 50 percent while average wages for workers remained flat.
More
· Read AFL-CIO President John J. Sweeney’s statement on the August jobs figures.
· Download the AFL-CIO report, Job Quality: Here to Stay?
· Read the Economic Policy Institute’s reports on wage decline and job loss of long-tenured workers.
· Download Executive Excess 2004: Campaign Contributions, Outsourcing, Unexpensed Stock Options and Rising CEO Pay from UFE and the IPS.
· See where Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) stands on issues important to working families.
