Economic Policy Institute is where Max Sawicki works, providing mutual credibility enhancement.
EMPLOYMENT – EDUCATED AND UNEMPLOYED: A new report by the Economic Policy Institute finds that long-term unemployment has skyrocketed, especially among the educated. An analysis of long-term unemployment from 2000 to 2003 shows that "the number of people without work for six months or more has risen at the extraordinarily high rate of 198.2% over this period." Especially hard hit? Job seekers with college degrees. College graduates represent 15.3% of total unemployment, but 19.1% of long-term unemployment, and long-term unemployment for this group has risen by 299.4%.
hat tip to the Center for American Progress.
Posted by P6 at March 4, 2004 12:15 PM
Trackback URL: http://www.niggerati.net/mt/mt-tb.cgi/682
Comments
*sigh*
Posted by Al-Muhajabah at March 4, 2004 03:56 PMThe Galbraiths--John K. and his son, James K.--have written extensively on the fallacy of the labor market. Galbraith pere has argued that education is not a solution to poverty or unemployment; it is a merit good*, and can influence productivity, but not at all decisively, and it has an indirect effect on wages. I'm relying on memory here, but I believe it was in the New Industrial State (1966?) where he made the argument that industrial policy directed at wages and full employment, not educational levels, are the crucial component of prosperity.
(I read the EPI article last night. In all honesty, I thought the point about unemployment being unseasonably high was poorly presented; I would have written that the real scandal is not the unemployment level, it's that the WH has lied blatantly--as did the Reagan WH--about its real economic program. They say they've renounced Keynesianism, but this is really brainless multiplier policy. Even worse--much worse--is the fact that, with a stimulus of 5.5% of GDP, jobs have been lost.)
Galbraith pere wasn't trying to say education doesn't matter, but rather, emphasis on educational standards as a substitute for industrial policy is just a form of rhetorical chaff. Improving "standards won't end unemployment or low wages; for one thing, wages are determined under a monoposonoid** labor market.
Galbraith fils has written that there is no labor market at all--rather like Karl Polanyi, wages and duties are imbedded in the social structure of the firm. (PDF of Galbraith's "heresy")
The failure of a degree to ensure employment would, I think, tend to validate much of the Galbraith fils theory.
-----------------------------
* Merit good = a product the possession of which causes non-owners to benefit. Turning indicators on a car are an example of a merit good. IMO about two thirds or more of the benefit of an education accrues to society.
** Monopsonoid = a maret where there is only one buyer; or else, if there is an alternative, choosing the alternative poses high costs.
Posted by James R MacLean at March 5, 2004 03:29 PM