The great irony of Labor Day is right there in its name. The one thing Americans anticipate in this annual observance is that no labor will be done on this day, at least not by the majority of citizens, who are happy for the break from work.
It’s often used as an occasion to reflect on the state of the labor force, including collective bargaining rights and conditions of the workplace. But in recent years — as the recession sent millions to the unemployment lines, devastated financial markets and undercut the economic rebound — those concerns have given way to the crisis faced by those unable to find a job at all, or at least one providing a living wage.
Last week Hawaii’s unemployment rate, long below the national average, ticked even lower, to 5.7 percent. This is always greeted as welcome news and, given the recent slate of encouraging reports from the bedrock tourism industry, not unexpected.
Dwight Takamine, director of the state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, told the Star-Advertiser last week that even with the comparatively mild unemployment rate, a group numbering approaching 40,000 are unemployed here — not counting those who have not replaced the wage of the job they lost or who need more hours on their time sheet. And among those are an untold number that qualify for inclusion in the "long-term unemployed" class.
"Long-term unemployment has been a particularly damaging feature of the recent recession and sluggish recovery," wrote Inna Cintina, an economist at the University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization. "Providing a financial safety net for these workers both supports families individually and supports overall spending and economic growth. If we are lucky Congress will find a way to come to an agreement that saves the extended benefit program until the economy is on a firmer footing."
Cintina was writing at the end of last year about the benefits program that was about to expire, the Emergency Unemployment Compensation program, which fortunately was extended until Jan. 3, 2013, in a flurry of year-end deal-making on Capitol Hill. Further extensions are at least in doubt regardless of the outcome of the November national elections, considering the mounting worries about the federal deficit and debt.
Those who had already exhausted their extended benefits aren’t helped by extensions, of course. The consequences of long-term unemployment have been homelessness for some, doubling up with family for others. Some who are nearing conventional retirement age have simply found themselves in early retirement, at income levels that are unsustainable for very long.
This persistent problem is one that should continue to inform policy in the coming years, underscoring the importance of retraining programs in educational institutions and the likelihood that the social safety net will need shoring up, both through public funding and charitable nonprofit support.
But Hawaii and the rest of the U.S. have reached the point where emergency patches should not be the only concern. A new generation of employees recently graduated from high school and college and need to be supported in their search for work. Beyond building an educational system that is aligned with the needs of the new economy, industry needs regulatory codes that protect the public but don’t simply address problems by adding extraneous layers of rules. There should be fewer constraints placed on startups and small business, since that is where job-seekers often turn when conventional opportunities dry up.
The Great Recession should have taught Americans many things but, on Labor Day especially, one of them should be that people need to work and government must ensure they have more options to pursue each year, not fewer.
