Jobless Millions Signal Death of the American Dream for Many
THE OBSERVER: Even the criminals have fallen on hard times in America's poorest city as the long-term unemployed struggle to keep a grasp on normality

Union members hold up "I want to work" placards as they join a protest of several thousand people demanding jobs outside City Hall in Los Angeles on August 13, 2010. Photograph: The Observer
Richard Gaines is one of the best-known faces on Camden's Haddon Avenue. It is a rough-and-tumble street, lined with cheap businesses and boarded-up houses, and is prey to drug gangs. Gaines, 50, runs a barbershop, a hair salon and a fitness business. He works hard and is committed to his community. But Haddon Avenue is not an easy place to make a living in the best of times. And these are far from the best of times.

Just how badly the great recession has struck this fragile New Jersey city, which is currently the poorest in America, was recently spelled out to Gaines. In happier times – whatever that might mean for a city as destitute as Camden – local businesses on Haddon Avenue could at least rely on a bit of trade from those who made their money on the street.

Young men bought flashy clothes and got sharp haircuts and always paid in cash. But no longer. The economy is now so bad in Camden that even the criminals are struggling and going short. "Even the guys who got money from illegal means really don't want to spend it," Gaines said.

Such a development, though, is just a snapshot of the deep problems still hitting the wider American economy. Growth rates are stuttering and a recovery is struggling to take hold. It may even now be showing signs of going backwards again, as countries such as Germany start to power forward. Joblessness has taken hold in America, with the numbers of long-term unemployed reaching levels not seen since the Depression of the 1930s. The figures are frightening and illustrate a society that remains in deep trouble.

The headline jobless figure of 9.5% is bad enough but does not begin to convey the problem as it fails to measure those who have stopped looking for work. Over the past three months alone more than a million Americans have fallen into that category: effectively giving up hope of finding a job and dropping out of the official statistics. Such cases now number some 5.9 million and their ranks are likely to grow as millions more find their jobless status becoming a permanent state of hopelessness. Surveys show that with each passing week on the dole their chances of finding a job get slimmer.

Though corporations, especially in the banking sector, are posting healthy profits, they are not hiring new workers. At the same time, government cuts are sweeping through city and state governments alike, threatening tens of thousands of jobs and slicing away at services once thought vital. Schools, street lighting, libraries, refuse collection, the police, fire services and public transport networks are all being scaled back. >>> Paul Harris | Sunday, August 15, 2010

US Job Losses Are Double Expected Figure
THE GUARDIAN: American employers shed 131,000 jobs in July / Data sparks rally in government bonds but stock indices fall

President Barack Obama: the job loss data has fuelled fears that the US economic recovery will not bring about a revival in the job market. Photograph: The Guardian
Employers in the US shed twice as many jobs as expected in July, fanning fears that the recovery in the world's largest economy will not see a revival in employment.

The US government said 131,000 jobs were lost overall, compared with forecasts for a 65,000 fall. The drop was mainly due to work finishing for temporary staff hired by the government to conduct its census. But private hiring was also weaker than expected.

Economists polled by Reuters ahead of the non-farm payrolls data forecast that private sector jobs would rise by 90,000, but in the event only 71,000 were added.

At the same time, June's overall drop was revised to a far steeper 221,000 from 125,000.

The data sparked a rally in government bonds, seen as safer investments when the economic picture darkens. Crude oil futures dropped on the prospect of weaker demand from the US market and stock indices also fell, including the FTSE 100 in the UK.

"This employment report only reinforces a sluggish recovery. Private sector job and income gains are not weak enough to point to a renewed downturn, nor are they strong enough to suggest the recovery is free of such risk," said Stephen Gallagher, economist at Société Générale.

Within July's drop, 143,000 jobs were census staff who were laid off, but there were also a further 59,000 public sector job losses as the US government mirrored its counterparts around the world in tightening budgets. Economists voiced concerns that the private sector outlook was also gloomy, suggesting that Americans will remain wary about their job prospects and do little to power the recovery.

"This is not good news for consumer confidence or spending and will intensify concerns about the pace of the recovery at the Federal Reserve," said James Knightley economist at ING Financial Markets. >>> Katie Allen | Friday, August 06, 2010

Tensions Rise as Jobless Migrants Are Blamed for the Pain in Spain
TIMES ONLINE: The food bank in Vic, 40 miles north of Barcelona, occupies an old bakery in a side street. Each day hundreds of unemployed stream in to collect handouts of bread, milk, pasta and other necessities. The overwhelming majority are immigrants, predominantly Moroccans and sub-Saharan Africans who flocked to Vic in the past few years to work on building sites or in the huge pig farms and meat factories that surround the town and give it its distinctive smell.

At least 10,000 came, swelling Vic’s population by a quarter. They did the hard, dirty work and were welcomed. Not any more. Half lost their jobs when Spain’s construction bubble burst in 2008 and brought the good times to an abrupt end.

A deeply unpopular €15 billion (£12.7 billion) austerity package rushed through parliament yesterday will make life even harder. On top of that, the immigrants are now the target of Platform for Catalonia, Spain’s equivalent of the BNP, which is based in Vic. “Control immigration — stop the crisis,” its leaflets proclaim.

“They insult us. They say maybe we’re the cause of the crisis, that we take their jobs. It’s not fair and it’s not nice,” said Mercy Omoroagbon, 30, as she collected her handout. She arrived from Nigeria in 2002, lost both her cleaning jobs last year and now lives off the charity of friends.

“They say the Spanish can’t work because of the immigrants. It’s not true. We did the work the Spanish didn’t want or wouldn’t do,” said Joy Ekechukwu, 33, another Nigerian who came to Spain 11 years ago, lost her factory job and now struggles to support her two young children. Read on and comment >>> Martin Fletcher | Friday, May 28, 2010

The Czech Republic Pays for Immigrants to Go Home
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: Unemployed Guest Workers and Their Kids Receive Cash and a One-Way Ticket as the Country Fights Joblessness

Prague -- During its manufacturing boom earlier this decade, the Czech Republic wooed immigrants with plentiful jobs and comparatively higher wages. Now the Czech government is paying them to go back home.

Four years ago, Uyanga Ganbold migrated from Mongolia to Plzen, an industrial hub 60 miles south of Prague, with dreams of a European education for her two children. But she lost her job assembling Panasonic televisions and is taking the government's offer of a one-time payment of €750 ($992), triple her monthly wages. "I've never held that much money in my hands all at once," said the petite 34-year-old before leaving in mid-April.

Trin Van Pham is a harder sell. The Vietnamese immigrant lost his factory job with Czech auto maker Skoda in December, but turned down a similar package to leave. "It's just a little bit of money," compared with the $11,000 debt he took on to get here, says Mr. Pham, 30. Besides, he says, "if I go back, I'll also be looking for a job. It's not easy to get one there."

Their reactions underscore the difficulties of unraveling the global work force this once labor-strapped nation created as it grew into a manufacturing hub. In 2007, foreigners scooped up nearly 40% of the new jobs created in the Czech Republic. In the last five years alone, the number of immigrant workers doubled to nearly 362,000 by the end of 2008.

With demand for exports down, unemployment has soared to a two-year high of 7.7%. Economists say the rate could hit 10% by year's end, and there are signs rising joblessness is pushing some Czechs to apply for the low-wage work they once left to foreign laborers. The Czech economy is set to contract by 2% this year -- a sharp fall from a growth peak around 7% in 2006.

In February, the government, fearing crime, homelessness and immigrants overstaying visas, launched a $3 million program to pay newly jobless migrants to go home. The pitch: €500 per legal immigrant, €250 for children under 15, and the cost of the tickets home. >>> By Joellen Perry | Tuesday, April 28, 2009