Employment numbers don’t tell the full story
By Glenn R. Jackson
With the October employment report showing an increase of 126,000 jobs and with the GDP’s exceptional 7.2% growth in the 3rd Quarter 2003, sighs of relief were heard from all quarters. The economy finally turning the corner to job creation was received with rising hope by the nations 8.8 million unemployed. And in Washington D.C. none could be happier then the President’s own re-election team.
As happy as I would be to see the nation finally climbing out of its “job loss” recovery, let me be one of the first to warn “not so fast Bush/Cheney 2004.” For while the President’s economic team can point with some pride to recent economic news, fundamental changes to the U.S. economy endanger the long-term economic health of the nation and the prospects for future employment hopes of millions.
Clearly, the President’s team has proved once again that the main engine of the U.S. and world economies is the U.S. consumer. Yes, tax cuts and the $13.7 billion in child credit tax rebate checks are a direct stimulus to the economy. Putting money in the pockets of the U.S. consumer flows directly toward purchasing “stuff,” and the production of “stuff” is what makes the world go round. It also doesn’t hurt to have the lowest U.S. mortgage rates in 40 years. Lowered monthly payments in a lot of U.S. households also provides stimulus to the spending pumps.
Yet both events, while ongoing in effect for years to come, are past their most dramatic direct impact. Unless the employment picture improves, and improves beyond even the 126,000 new jobs of October, neither event will maintain any long-term positive impact.
And here is where the President and the U.S. Congress are failing the American worker. Outsourcing of U.S. jobs and the importing of cheap foreign labor to take jobs that American’s DO want is continuing at an accelerating rate. Stories of American worker’s training their foreign replacement workers are unabated. The Center for Immigration Studies reports that the issuance of work visas continues at record-setting levels, and “looking only at the net increase in employment, the number of foreign-born adults (legal and illegal) holding a job has grown 1.7 million since 2000, while among (Americans) the number working actually fell by 800,000.”
Hidden by the glad-handing over the October employment numbers are the continued job losses in the manufacturing sector. Unemployment among Black-Americans is an astounding 11.5%; nearly double the overall national number. Are the manufacturing job losses, manufacturing being the traditional entry point into the better U.S. jobs, disproportionately impacting Black-Americans?
Also glossed over in noting the 8.8 million unemployed Americans are the additional “1.6 million persons…marginally attached to the labor force, 170,000 more than a year earlier…these individuals wanted and were available to work…They were not counted as unemployed because they did not actively seek work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey.” These individuals are indicative of another largely unaccounted for group, the “underemployed.” These “underemployed” individuals have taken jobs at fractions of their prior incomes and are a large and disenchanted group of U.S. workers.
As much as we all hope for more jobs and an improving economic picture for our families, neighbors, and friends, the reality is not as rosy as many would like to paint the picture. This is an economy that is teetering on the brink of competing interest. On the one hand are the interest and the social contract between this nation’s citizens and the people elected to lead, and on the other are the “bottom line” interest of the corporations those same citizens helped to build. Examples are close to home.
The State of Georgia’s Department of Human Resources has outsourced the state’s call center operation for 438,000 food stamp recipients to an Indian company. State tax dollars are providing jobs to foreign workers when those jobs are needed in Georgia. Russell (athletic sportswear) closes a plant in South Georgia and will cut U.S. staff by 10%, but plans to build a $50 million textile factory in Honduras and employ up to 700.
Can this nation’s economy survive without the full employment of every willing U.S. citizen?
The answer may be as simple as keeping U.S. jobs in the U.S., and allowing America’s workers - the world’s best, the chance to continue what they do best – create, build, and innovate the products and services that the world needs.
Glenn Jackson is Chairman of the American Reformation Project and Board Member of Hire American Citizens. Glenn was a founding Board member and first President of the National Association for the Employment of Americans (NAEA), and organizer of American Jobs Coalition (organizations fighting against the American Worker Replacement Program). Glenn is also a former State Chairman for Buchanan 2000 Presidential campaign, and former state Chairman of the Georgia Freedom Party. Glenn holds an MA in Philosophy from Georgia State University in Atlanta.
© Glenn R. Jackson