Under Bush, Labor Surplus Grows

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

by Seth Sandronsky


President Bush is presiding over a growing surplus of US workers who are unable to find paid work. Case in point is the growth in the rate of employment to population (job-holders age 16 and up) that fell to 62.2 percent this February from 62.4 percent last February. Consider some workers who think that no employer will hire them.

There were 484,000 of these "discouraged workers" in February 2004, up from 450,000 a year ago. These jobless workers are a subset of a yet larger group.

Yes, there is a name for these folks. Meet those Americans who are "marginally attached to the labor force," in the words of the Labor Dept.

This February the number of workers so named increased to 1.7 million from 1.6 million last February. To be marginally attached means that workers are out of a job and have tried to find paid employment in the past year, but had not actively tried to be hired during the four weeks before the Dept. of Labor's survey of households.

As a result, such workers were not counted as being officially unemployed. What if they were included in the government's jobs report?

-more-

http://www.eatthestate.org/08-15/UnderBushLabor.htm

[kalian]

1. Hmmm....and what will these extra bodies be used for....?

Maybe an enlarged and expanding imperial army perhaps...? :eyes:

[oldleftguy]

2. The army of the unemployed...

:bounce:

[ashling]

6. I have been saying for some time

that I am in Bush's Army . . . . of unemployed. I went AWOL over the holidays when I worked retail (8.50 hr) but in January the Army caught up with me.
:dem:

[Jim Sagle]

3. Soylent Green.

[bemildred]

4. Maybe they could be encouraged to vote?

Maybe even for somebody that represents their interests?
Hmmmm ...

[Lindacooks]

5. If they were included, and they should be

it would be a much more accurate reflection of the actual unemployment number in this country. Which I think is close to 10%.