Will the squeeze on workers ever end?

[Hannah Bell]

THE LATEST government statistics on employment and jobs are in--and they're appallingly bad. Not only has hiring in the private sector slowed down--again--but public-sector jobs are evaporating at a record pace. According to the Labor Department, companies added just 64,000 jobs last month--down from 93,000 in August and 117,000 in July. Overall, the economy shed 95,000 non-farm jobs in September, with 159,000 government jobs lost at all levels. Local governments cut employment at the fastest rate in almost 30 years.

The official unemployment rate has now been at or above 9.5 percent for a year and two months--the longest stretch since the Great Depression of the 1930s...the loss of government jobs is only expected to get worse in the coming months. "In a research note," reported McClatchy Newspapers, "Alan Levenson, the chief economist for investment manager T. Rowe Price, noted that 'downsizing at state (and) local governments began later than in private industries, and will restrain the rebound in total employment even if...private industry hiring picks up gradually in the months ahead.'"

Of course, some people are doing great in today's economy--the people who caused the crisis in the first place. This boom in profits isn't a coincidence. It's a direct result of Corporate America taking advantage of the bleak picture for working people.

High unemployment is being used against workers to drive down wages that were already stagnant for a generation--and to undermine the remaining benefits and protections that workers have, whether union members or not. The threats against teachers to accept wage cuts and layoffs, along with "reform" measures that weaken their unions; the blackmail used to extract concessions from industrial workers; the relentless pressure on those who still have a job to work harder for less--all these and more are part of an overall offensive by the U.S. ruling class...The goal is to force U.S. workers--whether their employer is a private company or the government at any level--to accept a "new normal": declining living standards and wages.

http://socialistworker.org/2010/10/13/the-squeeze-on-workers