WHILE BUSH PUSHES FOR WAR: LAYOFFS SPREAD IN HIGH-TECH AND BANKS
By Heather Cottin

Like an avalanche in slow motion, the U.S. economy continues  to slide,
and workers are being buried in the rubble.

Bush's Labor Department reported that unemployment in  September
remained unchanged at 5.6 percent. Even Wall  Street is skeptical about
this figure, however, especially  since it comes just before an
important midterm election.

Economic writers David Leonhardt and Daniel Altman of the  New York
Times reflected this skepticism when they wrote on  Oct. 13 that "the
nation continues to suffer through a broad  jobs slump."

"Few companies have hired significant numbers of new  employees," they
say, "and the worrisome economic signs of  the last month have caused
some to announce new layoffs,  making last year's recession feel to
many as if it is still  going on."

Robert J. Barbera, the chief economist at ITG/Hoenig, a  technology and
investment company, told the Times, "The job  market is moribund."

And while the government is saying that unemployment remains  steady,
these reporters point out that "The number of people  on payrolls fell
in September for the first time in five  months, help-wanted
advertising has dropped significantly  and the number of unemployment-
insurance claims, while  volatile, has generally risen."

Many of the cutbacks have been in high-technology companies  and
financial institutions, leading to what these writers  call "unusually
democratic" layoffs, meaning that better- paid white men are being laid
off at the same rate as women  and people of color.

But unemployment among African Americans is still almost  double that
of whites--9.6 percent--and Latinos are at 7.4  percent. More women
have become "discouraged workers" who  just can't find jobs.

And the number of people who have stopped seeking jobs-- since few can
be had--is mounting, according to the Bureau  of Labor Statistics.

Telecommunications job cuts are leading all other layoffs.  Lucent
Technologies, which had a workforce of 123,000 only  two years ago, has
announced it will cut 10,000 more jobs,  reducing its payroll to 35,000
workers by the end of the  year.

Agere, the nation's largest producer of semiconductors, is a  spinoff
from Lucent. Agere announced in August that it  planned to cut its work
force to 7,200 from 11,200 by the  end of 2003, close a number of
factories and consolidate its  U.S. manufacturing. It has been hit hard
by the  overproduction of fiber-optic cables that led to the
bankruptcies of technology giants Global Crossing and Tyco.

Agere has been a major employer of workers in Pennsylvania's  Lehigh
Valley, a region that has not recuperated from the  closing of
Bethlehem Steel's mills in the 1990s.

Big banks are also laying off thousands of workers. J.P.  Morgan Chase
slashed hundreds of jobs of sales traders and  analysts on Oct. 14, the
beginning of a planned reduction of  3,000 jobs at its branches around
the globe. The Morgan bank  had already laid off about 8,000 people
since its 2000  merger with Chase Manhattan.

On the same day, the New York Post reported that Merrill  Lynch may
dismiss more than 20 percent of its investment  bankers. The firm has
already cut 13,600 jobs, or 20 percent  of its staff, since last year's
second quarter.

Credit Suisse First Boston announced early in the month that  it
planned to eliminate 1,500 jobs in October.

These layoffs of bankers, investment analysts and other high- paid
specialists will have a ripple effect throughout the  economy,
especially impacting on service jobs like waiters,  dry cleaners,
domestic workers and others.

Statistics don't show the social effect on people who are  sinking into
poverty and insecurity.

While the corporate criminals who stole billions get golden  parachutes
or an occasional slap on the wrist, workers are  plunged into
uncertainty and crisis. Marcia Angell, editor  of the New England
Journal of Medicine, notes that 1.5  million people in the U.S. lost
their health insurance in  2001. The layoffs in 2002 will swell that
number, even as  Bush orchestrates Medicare and Medicaid cutbacks for
the  elderly and poor.

Meanwhile, both Democrats and Republicans are pushing for a  war in
Iraq that it is estimated will cost as much as $200  billion. With a
youth unemployment rate this summer at 12.4  percent--up two percentage
points over last summer--young  people are feeling more pressure to
join the armed forces in  lieu of finding decent jobs.

The economy is flat. Workers are fed up. And at the same  time, a major
war of aggression is developing that is  becoming increasingly
unpopular even before it starts. It is  all a prescription for a
deepening struggle against the  capitalist ruling class, whose
insatiable need for profits  is endangering the lives and welfare of
the people.