jobless and hopelessness

In the United States, the December jobs report shows only modest private-sector job growth and offers slim hope that the nation's 15 million unemployed are going to find relief anytime soon. Their financial reserves are exhausted; their job prospects nil; their family relations stressed; and, their belief in government's ability to help them is negligible. They feel hopeless and powerless, unable to see their way out of the ditch they find themselves in. Joblessness not only leaves deep scars on people -- financially and psychologically -- but also has enduring effects on families, communities and societies. Beyond the personal suffering, the despair of unemployed workers undermines their trust of employers, the economy and government.

The Heldrich Center first interviewed a national sample of more than 1,200 unemployed workers who lost their jobs during the recession in August 2009. More than 900 were re-interviewed in March, and 764 were contacted again in November. One-quarter of those first interviewed in August 2009 had found full-time jobs some 15 months later. Most of the "fortunate" re-employed accepted jobs for less pay and/or less benefits. Four in 10 had to change careers to gain employment.

Among those still unemployed, about six in 10 had been job hunting for at least a year, with fully one-third looking for more than two years. Roughly half of the unemployed believe another year will go by before they begin working again, if ever. By a margin of 2-to-1, unemployed workers fear they will never regain the financial position they had before the recession.

More than three-quarters of the long-term unemployed (76%) say they have "a lot less" in income and savings now, compared with when the recession began. Many have borrowed money from friends and family, sold possessions and gone without needed health care. The economic victims of the recession are enduring downwardly mobile lives. Nearly two-thirds think that older workers will not be able to retire when they want to (65%). More than half say it will become harder for young people to afford college (51%) and that workers will have to take jobs below their skill level (49%).

Millions of unemployed Americans, facing a situation not of their own making, have exhausted all ideas of what to do next.

Employ­ers have cut mil­lions of jobs since the reces­sion began, dri­ven by a drop in busi­ness and a desire to shore up costs and boost prof­its. Employ­ees also are cram­ming more work into each day. Labour pro­duc­tiv­ity has moved steadily higher.

Is unemployment really the problem? Don’t get it wrong. SOYMB doesn’t want to play down the misery of those who have lost their jobs – or the many more who are going to lose their jobs – in the current slump. We know very well what losing your job so often means. Losing your home. Even losing your family. Unemployment is a problem only for people who depend on being employed in order to live. Many appeal to the government to create more jobs, hoping to go back to slaving away for others.The situation of dependence is the real problem. Socialists don’t appeal for jobs. We don’t want jobs. That doesn’t mean we’re lazy. We thirst for the opportunity to do useful work as free, equal, and dignified human beings – work to satisfy our needs and the needs of others.