The global jobs crisis

[Hannah Bell]

New reports on unemployment, poverty and hunger released this week demonstrate that the global economic crisis is being used to effect a basic restructuring of social relations characterized by long-term high unemployment and the impoverishment of the working class.

An Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) study released Wednesday reports that by the end of 2010, 10 million jobs will likely be lost among member states, bringing to 25 million the number of jobs eliminated in the thirty-member group of industrialized nations since the economic crisis began at the end of 2007. The OECD unemployment rate climbed to 8.3 percent in June, the highest on record dating back to World War II, and a sharp increase from the close of 2007, when unemployment stood at 5.6 percent...

“People 54 or younger are losing ground financially at an unprecedented rate in this recession,” the article reports. It notes that “household income for people in their peak earning years—between ages 45 and 54—plunged $7,700 to $64,349 from 2000 through 2008, after adjusting for inflation.” Only workers born before 1955 have seen even a marginal increase in their incomes since 2000.

It is understood, moreover, that the jobs, pay, benefits and social spending being eliminated in the recession will not come back. The OECD study warns that “a major risk is that much of this large hike in unemployment becomes structural in nature,” while a recent Time magazine story anticipates that unemployment in the US is likely to remain between 9 percent and 11 percent for years to come.

A new report from the United Nations’ World Food Program (WFP) reveals that more than one billion people, or about one in every 6 of the earth’s inhabitants, will experience hunger this year...
And a report issued Wednesday by the World Bank predicts that the economic crisis will force 89 million more people into poverty by the end of next year, largely in poor countries.

It is not an accident that multi-trillion-dollar bailouts of the banks have been accompanied by growing unemployment and poverty...

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/sep2009/pers-s19.shtml

[theophilus]

1. Such will be the case until "green" industries take hold and we

start deciding to limit our propagation. This is a crossroads folks. Are we smart enough to take the right road? Dramatic change will come whether we do or not......imo.

[blindpig]

6. Backwards

A 'green economy' and stabilization of population can only occur with the elimination of capitalism. The first requires the end of a profit driven economy, a planned economy, the second the elimination of poverty.

Nothing else will do.

[pscot]

2. You might want to repost this in the Economy forum

This is an important post and deserves to live longer than it will in GD. I think we're in a lot of trouble, and it's not going away anytime soon.

[izquierdista]

3. Jobs, jobs, jobs

All the unemployed masses want jobs, but there just isn't enough work to go around. There is no way to put every healthy adult to work on a 40-hour a week job without a massive make-work program. The health insurance industry is doing its part to help. Nowadays every doctor's office requires several people who spend 8 hours a day arguing with someone at the insurance company, and on the other end of the line is someone employed by the insurance company. It is work with zero productivity, but some multi-millionaire is directing his legion of minions to keep running up phone bills.

Studies of very primitive societies, like the Kombai of New Guinea, estimate that they feed and clothe and shelter themselves using an input of about 15 hours a week from the average adult. And they do that without washing machines, dishwashers, automatic coffee makers and lawn mowers that have a GPS and an automatic ball washer. Life was supposed to get MORE leisurely after the Industrial Revolution, not more frantic.

The root of the problem is considering labor to be a "market", where the supply of jobs and the number of unemployed determines the wage. Labor needs to be paid a living wage, not as little as the CEO can get by with so he can have more "profit" to himself. Two hundred years ago, a pioneer labored to put a roof over his head and feed his family, and he only went out to get a job if the wages from that job could provide more that he could by his own efforts. Today's complicated society has subdivided labor so that it is near impossible for a man to provide for his family by building a house and raising a crop with his own two hands. A drywaller may have to install drywall in a thousand houses to earn enough wages to buy his own house. In doing so, he has invested far more time than if he took chain saw to tree and built a cabin by himself.

A partial solution to the problem would be to introduce a "maximum wage", to go along with the minimum wage. With all the technological advancements, we should be at a stage where it is not necessary to labor for the necessities of life. Food production requires less than 1% of the population, but food preparation and serving, which are not necessary jobs, account for probably 10 times as many employees. Sports, leisure, and entertainment now employ millions of people, where before the Industrial Revolution people made their own entertainment. All these non-essential jobs keep money cycling in the economy, but in rough economic times, which capitalist fall into without fail, these jobs disappear.

The complete solution to the problem of jobs is multi-faceted. But getting back to what the unions worked for - an honest day's pay for an honest day's work is a good start. And the way to be able to pay honestly is to take it away from those who pay themselves dishonestly.

[Orwellian_Ghost]

4. Thanks Hannah

I know the vultures will swoop to the source and avoid the carrion that lays all around us but you keep on bringin' us reality-based information.

K&R

[HamdenRice]

5. I wouldn't trust any numbers posted by WSWS, which is little more than a cult

built around a millionaire corporate executive who plays at being a Trot. On what basis does this cult predict that jobs will not come back? The fact that they are confidently predicting the future demonstrates that their "analysis" is simply a faith based statement of their creed.

[Orwellian_Ghost]

8. Like ringin' a bell

[SpiralHawk]

7. "You proles can just shut up, sit down, and watch Fox 'news.' Sneer." Republicon FatCat Cronies

[Hannah Bell]

9. that poor cat.