jobless and powerless

According to the American Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) latest report, there were 1.1 million private sector jobs gained in the last year, and of those jobs, 650,000 (or about 60 percent) could be categorized temporary, leisure and hospitality, and retail sales. The BLS cites the average rate of packers and packagers as $8.62 per hour. Other than keeping families from starving or living on the street, how are $8.62/hour jobs—not for teenagers still living with their parents, but for heads of households. Traditionally well paid male dominated occupations in construction and manufacturing were hit especially hard in the recession, and those males are now, as part of the bigger casualisation trend, taking lower paid and part time work, of the kind traditionally associated with women. As the influence of unions has declined, the standard of living has declined right along with it. And why wouldn’t it? With unions weaker and nothing to resist the downward pressure on wages, corporations will continue grinding workers down until, in theory, they reach the federal minimum of $7.25/hour.

From the New York Times we read that in the USA the GDP — the total value of all goods and services — has recovered from the recession better than in Britain, Germany, Japan or Russia. In Canada, Japan and most of Europe, corporate profits have still not recovered to pre-crisis levels. In the United States, profits have more than recovered, rising 12 percent since late 2007.
For corporate America, the Recession is over but for the American work force, it’s not. A greatly shrunken group of American workers, working harder and more efficiently, is producing the goods and services.The American jobless rate is higher than Britain or Russia and much higher than in Germany or Japan .
Why the lack of job growth despite the recovery? It's down to the balance of power between employers and employees. American employers operate with few restraints. Unions have withered, at least in the private sector, and courts have grown friendlier to business. Many companies can now come much closer to setting the terms of their relationship with employees, letting them go when they become a drag on profits and relying on remaining workers or temporary ones when business picks up. Unions are clearly playing on an uneven field. Companies pay minimal penalties for illegally trying to bar unions and have become expert at doing so, legally and otherwise. For all their shortcomings, unions remain many workers’ best hope for some bargaining power.

In the UK, the new private sector jobs that are being generated are also predominantly part time and temporary rather than full-time and permanent, with all that implies as well for lack of paid holidays, final salary pensions and job security.

In Scotland, the number who have been out of work for more than two years has doubled in the past 12 months, according to official figures. Long-term unemployment rose for every age group. Susan McPhee, director of external affairs at Citizens Advice Scotland, said: “The numbers of people out of work in Scotland now are so high that every family will know someone who is looking to find work and can’t get it. These figures also mask the reality that many of those who are in work are stuck in insecure, part-time or low-paying jobs that really don’t meet their needs.”

While in Ireland, the Economic and Social Research Institute project that a further 25,000 jobs will be lost – most of these in the construction, financial and public sector and that 50,000 people can be expected to emigrate (which compares to the 44,000 who emigrated in 1989, the peak year for emigration during the 80s).