A gloomy Labor Day for millions of Americans

Sunday, August 31, 2003 - Page updated at 12:00 A.M.
David S. Broder / Syndicated columnist

WASHINGTON — The economy is getting better, so the experts say. But this is anything but a joyful Labor Day for the 9 million Americans without jobs, or for the businesses that once employed many of them. As the union-backed Economic Policy Institute pointed out in a report last week, "in terms of employment growth, the current recovery is the worst on record since the Bureau of Labor Statistics began tracking employment in 1939."

Instead of the job picture improving as economic activity has accelerated, more than 1 million jobs have disappeared since the recession officially ended. The reason is clear: The manufacturing sector has hit the skids. The number of factory workers has declined every month for three years. From July of 2000 until last month, industrial jobs fell from 17.3 million to 14.6 million — a loss of almost one job in six. And these were, for the most part, good jobs, averaging $54,000 a year.

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