What can win jobs?

[dcsmart]

The intensifying capitalist crisis, which is bringing greater and greater suffering daily, is leaving the workers and the oppressed with no alternative but to organize a fightback. The deadly waves of unemployment, foreclosures, homelessness, hunger and repression are spreading while the ruling-class politicians and experts debate over the terms of the so-called “stimulus package.”

With 533,000 jobs lost in December, official unemployment went up to a 16-year high of 7.2 percent. The annual job loss for 2008 was over 2.59 million, the highest since World War II. The rapid rate of layoffs has brought the official number of unemployed to 11.1 million workers.
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The rarely published figure of “total unemployment” grew from 12.6 percent to 13.5 percent. Total unemployment includes those workers forced to take part-time work who need full-time jobs as well as workers who are known to have become so discouraged that they have stopped looking for work.

The average number of hours worked was down to 33.3 in December, the lowest since these records were first kept in 1964.

The most important aspect of the December figures is that December is usually a month of increased hiring, even during slow times, as retailers gear up for holiday sales, manufacturers put on additional workers to fill rush orders for inventory, and the restaurant and entertainment industries have higher sales.

Instead, December saw the biggest decline in retail sales since record keeping began in 1970, despite price-slashing sales of 50 to 70 percent off and buy-one-get-one-free offers. The International Council of Shopping Centers estimated that 148,000 retail stores shut down in 2008. It projected that another 73,100 retail stores will shut down in the first six months of 2009. The closures would result in the loss of 625,000 to 800,000 retail jobs. (Washington Post, Jan. 9)
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FULL ARTICLE
http://www.workers.org/2009/us/jobs_0122/