Pain of joblessness now to last for many years
To no one’s great surprise, the national unemployment rate today exceeded 10 percent for the first time since 1983. It was another crushing, if symbolic, blow to the psyche of American workers.
The just-announced 10.2 national unemployment rate partly was fueled by rising unemployment here in the nation’s heartland, where the St. Louis metro region already had 10.2 percent unemployment, and included Franklin County, St. Louis city and Jefferson County, which all eclipsed that overall average.
The story of woe is growing profoundly deep roots that will outlast the current misery and the elected leaders who are trying to reverse the monumental decline.
Economists have analyzed data to conclude that the recessionary period is over and that a painfully slow recovery has started. Some “green shoots” have sprouted sporadically, but hiring in most fields remains bleak as still more people lose jobs, although the pace has slowed slightly.
It’s hard to find solace in economic analysis when you have no job and your family’s life is a struggle. It’s difficult even for those who still are employed.
The national unemployment rate describes people without jobs who are looking for work. The pain spreads exponentially if one includes people who have stopped looking after months of frustration, who are working fewer hours or who now work in jobs that pay considerably less.
The depth of our collective struggle struck home Wednesday night when I attended a seminar called “The Real Demographics of Recession” at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
Howard Wall, vice president and director of the Center for Regional Economics-8th District (St. Louis), defined the people who are most affected by unemployment: less educated men under 19, African-Americans and other minorities and people in construction or manufacturing jobs. Wall’s study showed a rise in employment of people over 55. That is another bad signal because it suggests that people who had hoped to retire have been forced to continue to work.
Wall used a scholarly term that might be less familiar to the average worker: “foregone employment.” That’s a term for jobs that would have been created in normal economic times. Unemployment rates represent people without work right now. But Wall’s analysis showed the even deeper damage caused by “foregone employment.”
Those are jobs not being created in these extraordinary times. That absence will affect the younger end of the work force and displaced older workers who have few prospects of finding jobs within their chosen fields or that pay close to their previous standard of living.
The negative impact of current joblessness in our region is palpable. But the longer the jobless recovery extends, the more potential jobs will be lost for future workers and those fighting to recover their lives. The crisis in job creation is a silent demon that will harm working Americans even longer than the current hurt among their friends and families.
The impact from the current recession will span many more years, regardless of political interventions and good intentions. How much longer jobs continue to disappear or fail to materialize will define the longer-term damage of our economic collapse.
Gilbert Bailon has been editor of the P-D editorial pages since November 2007. Previously, he worked as a reporter, editor and executive editor for The Dallas Morning News and its daily Spanish-language newspaper, Al Dia. He still harbors a passion for all things Tex-Mex: food, music, language, boots and border culture. And yes he has found some of that in the Midwest. 
Republicans and Democrats believe the solution is to yell at the unemployed: “Hey, why you lazy bum, get a job!” and then the Republicrats create tax breaks and laws so the remaining jobs can be sent to Communist China.
Yeah that’s right I called it “Communist China” and I don’t care if you call me a racist for calling a Communist a Communist.
Nothing racist about the term Communist China. China is communist.
Now getting back to the headline, my only comment is : is this part of the HOPE we were all awaiting? I think enough time has passed to give Washington a fair chance.
So when is the big turnaround Bernake, et al are predicting?
Maybe right around the corner, problem is which corner?
Greyshark1,
Don’t tell me that you really think Obama has anything to do with why or where this country is today, the state we find ourselves in as a country?
Certainly, you are not that insane to even suggest or think such, are you?
Also, what man do you think could possibly avoid the pain this country must go through? What you see is the “cause and effect” of everything before Obama. I just wish people would cease being so ridiculously unintelligent.
The only thing that can be done presently is to prepare students to enter fields where the jobs are and until this new crop of skilled workers are schooled and trained, there isn’t anything that is going to change this economy.
Avenues for education and training in the areas of where the jobs will be are what will be needed. Each and every individual now have a responsibility to learn where these jobs are and will be and began preparing to enter these fields. Also for those families who can’t afford college, parents need to truly enforce the importance of education and learning with their children and also look into avenues such as the Armed Forces Health Professions Scholarship Program (HPSP) and other such avenues including other government support and training in the areas needed to compete until this country has produced the right kind of talent needed to rebuild our economy.
This country must weed out all corruption from our government with the highest concern being for the good of country and citizens. We are going to have to be smart and plan smart to get through this and come out okay, but even then it is going to take a long time before we see the fruits of such good planning.
This is a big test for this country to do right and good or it will FALL. We must keep in mind that in order to produce this good fruit we must begin truly being GOOD and JUST in all that we do and let go of all the INJUSTICES that this country and its people are guilty of. This sickness and attitude of selfishness (self-preservation) must end.
We can be a great country, but it is a decision that every citizen must make which includes stopping all the divisions and ugly.
Mr. B, instead of wondering where the jobs are, why aren’t you asking where the jobs are that Obama promised? He meets with the heads of GE and all the big companies and then signs bills that don’t tax overseas profits.
Why doesn’t GE open a plant here? How much longer are you people going believe what these liars tell you? Extending unemployment benefits doesn’t help anyone in the long run. Give a man a fishing pole and he’ll eat for life.
> That is another bad signal because it suggests that people who had
> hoped to retire have been forced to continue to work.
By the time I retire, the social security retirement age will probably be 80. Get used to it, people.
Hope and Change is on the way! This country is getting so for in debt that China will own us.
The hallucination that things are turning around is astounding. We are hugely overloaded with debt that will never be paid down, and what do we do? Pile on debt at 10x the rate. I’d much rather face the music now w/o any action from the government know-it-alls than have my future (and my loved ones’ future) razed. I sure hope tree bark taste better than I imagine.
Neat chart:
http://biggovernment.com/2009/11/06/so-hows-that-stimulus-thing-working-for-you/
What we need is the rest of the stimulus money released so that we can create more jobs in the government sector. We’re on the road to recovery and we have just the man on the job to see it through. Had the prior administration not screwed up everything (right Horri?) unemployment would be down to 2%. Had Obama not been the one elected, unemployment would now be 20%. He is the smartest leader we have ever had.
egoist,
It is astoundingly stupid to think that loading on the debt in smart areas will not be necessary in order for any hope that things will get better.
Smart debt should be considered an investment, that’s how it should be looked upon.