"Last Friday’s US unemployment report, which showed a net payroll gain of 162,000 jobs in March, has been seized on by the Obama administration and much of the media as confirmation of official claims that the recession is over and a recovery in the jobs market has begun. A closer look at the figures, however, leads to far less sanguine conclusions."
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/apr2010/pers-a07.shtmlThe article notes that the figures in the jobs report show:
- 88,000 of the added jobs were temporary, e.g. 48,000 census jobs
- Underemployment rate (involuntarily part-time/discourage workers) rose to 16.9 percent, 3rd straight month of increase
- Long-term unemployed (27 weeks or more) went up by 414,000, now at 6.5 million, = more than 40 percent of jobless workers.
- Average length of unemployment went up to 31 weeks, highest level for 60 years.
- Hourly wages declined.
- Productivity rose 6.9%, unit labor costs declined 5.9%, gdp (4th qtr) = 5.6%.
= more work, less pay, fewer employed.
"Another indication of the class character of the so-called recovery is the divergence between GDP and a measure of national income—gross domestic income (GDI). In the third quarter of 2009, the GDI was still contracting even as the GDP rose 2.2 percent. The current gap between GDP and GDI is the biggest on record...reflect(ing) the fact that the present recovery is largely a rebound in corporate profits and the wealth of the financial elite, while the living standards of the vast majority of Americans are continuing to fall...
This can be seen further in a list published Sunday by the New York Times of the 30 highest-paid US corporate CEOs. Fully 10 of the 30 preside over firms that registered declines in revenue and net income in 2009, yet recorded gains in total return — a measure linked to the change in the company’s stock price. All but three of these CEOs saw their compensation increase over 2008.
The “success” of these corporations, and of their chief executives, was due overwhelmingly to cost-cutting measures that, even in the face of reduced revenues and income, drove up the firms’ share value."
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/apr2010/pers-a07.shtml 
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
