STUCK IN A RUT

See that right there? That graph. Well, it displays movements in the percentage of unemployed workers who've experienced long turn unemployment (LTU)-- that is, the percentage of unemployed persons who've been jobless for at least six months. People who've gone gig-less for at least half a year.

That's long enough for the bank to put your crib in foreclosure. Long enough for you to be in default on your credit card. Long enough for your landlord to boot you out of the residence. Long enough to be in serious trouble with Sallie Mae. Long enough to get your car snatched. Long enough for VISA--along with all your creditors-- to report your stuff to Experian, Equifax, or Transunion. Long enough for your FICO to be get seriously f... ked up. Long enough for that trickle of water to turn into a wave capable of drowning you. Long enough to race through your savings. In fact, it's more than long enough.

And herein lies the significance of the above displayed chart. Between March 2020--the date at which the economic impact of COVID began to manifest itself-- and April 2021, long-turn unemployment has taken off like a rocket, zooming from 18.5% to 43%. Stated somewhat differently, when March 2020 rolled through and COVID started to wreak its economic havoc, less than 20% of unemployed persons had been jobless for 27 weeks or more. Today, however, the long-term unemployed accounts for a whopping 43% of the total unemployed. By the way, that workout to about 4.2 million persons. Way up from the 1 mil that existed right before the pandemic hit a little more than a year ago.

COLOR AND CLASS CODED

Studies have consistently demonstrated that long-term unemployment gobbles away at one's self-esteem, lowers the trajectory of future wages and, because employers tend to view the long-term unemployed as tainted, makes it harder to successfully jump back into the labor market and secure a gig. The longer you're out of the game, the harder it is to get back in and, if you do get back in, there's a heightened likelihood that you'll be pulling in significantly less coins than you did previously.

And, as usual, when it comes to economic gruel, Black, Brown, and poor bodies tend to get more than their share. When it comes to long-term unemployment, for instance; whites are 61% of the labor force but "only 47 percent of those who have been jobless for six months or more. Black folk, in contrast, constitute about 12 percent of the labor force but account for one-fifth (20%) of the long-term jobless. In short, we're disproportionately represented amongst the ranks of those who've been enmeshed in that economic mush known as long-term unemployment.

Absent some progressive economic policy, this group--along with several others-- are at risk of being left behind by any nascent economic recovery. A hands-off approach, a reliance on the illusory "magic" of the market, is sure fire recipe for allowing the most economically pressed to remain stuck in a rut.

DRAWING FROM THE WELL

But here's some good news: Despite what is widely propagated and believed, economic outcomes are not --or at least, should not- be beyond moral scrutiny. We need not, and should not, passively accept what seemingly flows out through the interaction of supply and demand. We need not swallow the narrative that "the market" and its outcomes are always efficient and fair. We need not act as if supply and demand--and their interactions-- are gods and goddesses, leaving us with no choice but to accept resulting distributions--of income, of wealth, of employment and so forth-- as divinely ordained. We can morally evalaute outcomes, even those largely produced by recessions induced by a pandemic. To tolerate the existence of millions languishing in poverty, particularly long-term joblessness, ought to be considered morally odious and, moreover, ought to be unmasked and revealed as the results of political decisions, not as the outcome of the operation of some iron-clad economic "laws."

Perhaps more than ever, we need to reach back, retrieve, reconnect, and reenact a vision wherein all persons are entitled to not only to social and political rights but also economic rights, including the right to a job at wages that permits the job-holder to thrive economically. The idea that humans qua humans are entitled to--and ought to claim-- their right to work at dignified wages, and the duty that the Federal government has an obligation to guarantee employment to all who are able, ready, and willing to work. The idea that no one should be involuntarily jobless. The idea that economic policies ought to be evaluated on the extent to which they contribute to flourishing of human rights, including that sub species known as economic rights. The idea that the presence of millions of involuntarily unemployed folks is prima facie evidence of economic justice and, because Black and Brown bodies are disproportionately represented amongst the ranks of the jobless, also evidence of racial injustice.

Within the United States, this idea goes at least as far back as FDR's 1944 State of the Union address in which he called for complete acceptance of a "second bill of rights." Among the rights he enumerated was the "right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the nation." What's more, this right has been increasingly centered in Black demands for racial and economic justice. Over half a century ago, Bayard Rustin--on behalf of the A. Phillip Randolph Institute-- rolled out the "Freedom Budget" which called for, among other things, a guaranteed jobs program that would provide good gigs to all those able, ready, and willing to work. With signatories that included progressive economists, socialists, labor activists, and Civil Rights leaders, the Freedom Budget explicitly used the language of human rights and centered the right to work at good wages as key to the stomping out joblessness and poverty. The federal government had the obligation to "provide full employment for all who are able and willing to work" and to "insure decent and adequate wages to all who work." Striking a similar note, Martin Luther King, Jr., called for an economic bill of rights that would "guarantee a job to all who want to work and are able to work," and a guaranteed income for all those who are not able to work" or expected to work.

And let's not forget about the Black Panther Party. Their ten-point program outlined their beliefs and desires, with "point two" stating "We want full employment for our people." This same notion of a human right to employment at dignified wages also echoes in the demands made by Black Lives Matter activists and, more recently, in the work and advocacy of economists such as Darrick Hamilton and pastors such as Delman Coates.

By the way, Black women have long played a role in fighting for legislation wherein the Federal government would be mandated to ensure that jobs at livable wages are available to all able, ready, and willing to work. While their fight against economic precarity often goes unnoticed or outright dismissed, the fact of the matter is that they have a long history of rocking with the fight for economic rights and security. Case in point: Coretta Scott King. Our male centered analyses of the civil rights movement and its aftermath has nurtured an erroneous picture of Coretta Scott King as little more than an appendage of her spouse, as primarily a help-mate rather than an activist in her own right. Hence, we rarely, if ever, hear about the fact that she was a co-founder of the National Committee for Full Employment, an organization dedicated to advocacy work and activism on behalf of the realization of economic rights, including the right to a job at decent wages.

We need to draw from this well.

LINKING ECONOMICS TO HUMAN RIGHTS

So, here’s what’s up: Unemployment, including long-term joblessness, is not going to be eliminated unless and until we embrace and fight for the very thing that folk like Coretta Scott King embraced and fought for. The very thing that Bayard Rustin and A. Philip Randolph fought for. The very thing that the Black Panther Party fought for. The very thing that pastors like Delman Coates fight for. The very thing that animated the vision of the Freedom Budget. The very thing that economists like Darrick Hamilton passionately argues for. The very thing…

An economic vision that incorporates the idea of human rights. An economic policy that’s evaluated according to the degree to which it advances economic rights, including the right to a job at livable wages. That’s what we desperately need if we’re ever going to move forward and not just backward to “normal.” That’s what’s needed if the scourge of involuntary joblessness in general—and long term unemployment in particular—is to be vanquished. That’s what’s needed to get millions of our siblings out of the economic rut.

Catch you on the flip side,

Doc Greene