As a legal holiday, Labor Day is one of the most significant on the calendar, not because it is the last big holiday of the summer season, but because of its meaning to the backbone of this country, the American worker.
Since the first celebration was held in New York City in 1882, the day set aside for honoring the country’s working class has become the foremost recognition of the importance of those whose steadfast labor has been the driving force behind the nation’s economy.
At no time is that more evident than Labor Day 2009, as America struggles to recover from the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. As economic forecasters cling to the slightest of up-ticks or cheer about declines that are less than expected, predictions swing from wildly optimistic to gloom-and-doom.
On a single page of a recent Wall Street Journal, a report on the left side of the page stated “the most common path for the economy after a severe contraction has been a huge rebound in economic activity.”
Just inches away, on the right side of the page, an article acknowledged a boost in the coming months, but predicted the upturn would be followed by a new slump.
“The slack in the economy is so large that consumers won’t see meaningful raises for years, and they will have less borrowing power to drive their spending,” the article darkly prophesied.
For the American worker, all of the experts’ predictions are meaningless because workers are living the nightmare and know how bad it is in the trenches.
All of the manipulations of financial and business data do not alter the stark truth: Unemployed people cannot spend and those who are employed are so worried about becoming unemployed that they are saving instead of spending.
The people who gleefully report signs of recovery look at aggregate numbers instead of the reality of people struggling.
Economists cheer when new weekly unemployment claims slip from 558,000 to 550,000 as if it were some sort of victory. Investors watch the slight decline in people drawing benefits as a signal that the economy is turning around, but with six million people collecting unemployment benefits and nearly three million drawing extended benefits from the federal government as their state benefits run out, there seems to be little for American workers to cheer about.
“With nearly 9.3 million workers estimated to be receiving either regular or extended benefits,” said Nomura Securities chief economist David Resler in a Wall Street Journal column, “strains on housing and the overall economy from the weak job market remain.”
Labor Day has always been an anticipated day off from work right before the start of school, a chance for families to spend a little time together before work and school dictate tighter schedules. But this year, there is no joy in taking a day off when, for millions, there is nothing they would like more than to go to work.
This Labor Day, if you are fortunate to be working, take some time during the holiday weekend to think about our brethren who are trying to stretch their unemployment benefits to feed their families and pay their bills, fellow American workers whose main work now is looking for a job.
The unemployed workers aren’t just numbers on a page, or indicators of stock market growth. They aren’t unemployment claims; they are people with families and futures for whom things are looking pretty bleak right now.
There can be no celebration of Labor Day in 2009. But perhaps next year the working class can again enjoy the concept of taking a day off to celebrate being an American worker.
Norwood resident Candace Leary’s Midpoints column appears Mondays in the Transcript.
