Main Street

New Jobless Claims Drop, But…

I got behind-hand and missed new jobless day yesterday. The news was relatively good – relative to recent months, though, not relative to non-recession times. Sometimes I feel like an oracle of doom always saying “question the cheery headline numbers,” but the thing is, it’s so important to remember that millions of people are still struggling, and that small improvements are not enough.

And to illustrate how serious the situation is despite occasional better-than-expected numbers, the New York Times has an article detailing the difficulty workers who have been laid off have finding new work.

A decline in labor mobility may help explain some of the failure of workers to find jobs even after they have been unemployed for months. In previous downturns, some regions remained relatively strong, and attracted workers from other areas. This time, the credit crisis has damaged job prospects almost everywhere, and plunging home prices mean that some who would like to move cannot afford to do so because they owe more than their house is worth.

Another factor is that workers now are less likely to be able to return to their old employers when the economy recovers. At the height of unemployment in 1982, one of every five unemployed workers was on a temporary layoff, with the expectation they would be recalled, sooner or later. Today the comparable figure is 1 of 10.

The point is to look at the whole picture, and remember that this is about working people and about economic justice.

Tags: economy, unemployment