{"id":43061,"date":"2011-12-22T09:44:35","date_gmt":"2011-12-22T14:44:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/media.lclark.edu\/content\/hart-landsberg\/2011\/12\/22\/putting-workers-first\/"},"modified":"2011-12-22T09:44:35","modified_gmt":"2011-12-22T14:44:35","slug":"putting-workers-first","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/2011\/12\/22\/putting-workers-first\/","title":{"rendered":"Putting Workers First"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/a><\/a>The extent of our labor market problems has been highlighted\u00a0many times and in\u00a0many ways.\u00a0 <\/span>Yet, with little being done to correct them, it is worth keeping the issue in the public eye.<\/font><\/p>\n

What follows are three\u00a0charts<\/a> from the Economic Policy Institute.\u00a0 <\/span>This one highlights the ratio of unemployed persons\u00a0to job openings.\u00a0 Although the ratio has fallen\u00a0since the “end” of the recession, it\u00a0remains considerably higher than a decade ago.\u00a0\u00a0It currently stands at 4 unemployed per job opening.<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

<\/a>\"dec2011_jolts.png\"<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

This one breaks down the data by industry.\u00a0 It reveals that there are problems across the board.\u00a0 <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

<\/a>\"unemployed_openings_by_industry.png\"<\/a><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

This final one shows that the job crisis is hitting everyone.\u00a0 As the Economic Policy Institute explains: “Those with higher levels of education are leaving (or never entering) the workforce at the same rate as those with just a high school degree.” Only those with less than a high school diploma seem to be experiencing improved employment opportunities. <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/a><\/a>\"snapshot_labor_force_erosion_main.png\"<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

And the response of many political and business leaders\u00a0to this dismal situation?\u00a0 Primarily calls for austerity–or better said cuts in social spending.\u00a0 Some economists have even developed a theory of austerity-led growth, arguing that slashing\u00a0government spending will unleash private investment and job creation.\u00a0 <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

We have been witnessing a test of this theory in Europe<\/a> and not surprisingly it hasn’t produced positive results.\u00a0 As the economist Kevin O\u2019Rourke explains<\/a>:\u00a0 “One lesson that the world has learned since the financial crisis of 2008 is that a contractionary fiscal policy means what it says: contraction. Since 2010, a Europe-wide experiment has conclusively falsified the idea that fiscal contractions are expansionary.” <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/font><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

I am willing to bet that this outcome wasn’t\u00a0a surprise to most workers.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The extent of our labor market problems has been highlighted\u00a0many times and in\u00a0many ways.\u00a0 Yet, with little being done to correct them, it is worth keeping the issue in the public eye.
\nWhat follows are three\u00a0charts from the Economic Policy Institute.\u00a0 This one highlights the ratio of unemployed persons\u00a0to job openings.\u00a0 Although the ratio has fallen\u00a0since […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1853,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43061","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43061","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1853"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43061"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43061\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43076,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43061\/revisions\/43076"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}