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The first column I ever wrote for The Evangelist appeared in the Labor Day edition of September 1982. It was penned in the wake of the recession of the late 1970s and early '80s, and on the eve of the pastoral letter issued by the bishops of the United States titled "Economic Justice for All."

At that time, unemployment in the U.S. was around six percent, the highest level since pre-World War II days - yet, with the expectation that this was just a temporary departure from an otherwise steady upward economic progression.

In our pastoral letter, we bishops would call for full employment as a national policy goal. Now, in 2010, following the recession extending from 2007-09, the Wall Street meltdown and governmental bailouts, our nation's present unemployment rate is at 9.5 percent.

This figure does not take into account the 181,000 workers who have left the work force. Beaten down by the worst job situation since the Great Depression, many have just stopped looking for work. If these folks were included in the statistics, the unemployment rate would be at the 10.2 percent level.

Of the 14.6 million men and women officially counted as unemployed, nearly a million and a half are among the "99ers" - meaning they have been out of work for more than 99 weeks and, thus, have exhausted the absolute maximum in unemployment benefits.

Total numbers
Charles McMillion, president and chief economist of MBG Information Services in Washington, states that when you add up the 14.6 million people officially jobless; the 5.9 million who have stopped looking for work, but say they want a job; and the 8.5 million who are working part time, but would like to work full time, you end up with nearly 30 million Americans who cannot find the work they want and desperately need.

This is indeed a bleak situation for which there seems to be no quick turnaround. The Obama Administration has predicted that unemployment will drop to 8.7 percent by the end of this year and eventually sink to 6.8 percent by the end of 2013.

This seems to be an optimistic projection. To reach that level, the economy would have to add 300,000 jobs a month over the next three years.

Under present policies, this appears highly unlikely, given the fact that even in the first half of this year, when the economy grew at a healthy 3 percent, we added fewer than 100,000 new jobs.

Thus, Robert Gordon, an economics professor at Northwestern University and an expert in the labor market states, "We are legitimately beginning to draw analogies to the Great Depression in the sense that there is a growing hopelessness among job seekers."

Tragic effect
This assessment calls to mind a judgment made by the bishops of the United States in a 1930 statement issued at the onset of the Great Depression: "Unemployment is the great peacetime fiscal tragedy of the 19th and 20th centuries, and both in its causes and in the imprint it leaves upon those who are its victims, it is one of the great moral tragedies."

This prophetic statement needs to be borne in mind as we cope with the present unemployment problem, lest we be dulled in our sensitivity to the dire human consequences such has for individuals without work and for society in general.

I am aware somewhat of the worldwide dimensions of this unemployment problem and of the complexity of the economic issues involved - issues that require the best minds and resources we have to formulate solutions.

But the central concern I have is that solutions be found not only in the context of technical fiscal matters, nor in the context of particular economic theories or political programs, but, rather, that solutions be found as well in the context of the moral aspects of economic policy and the impact of these policies upon the lives of individuals and families.

Human hurts
As Pope Benedict XVI underscores in his most recent encyclical, "Caritas in Veritate" ("Charity in Truth"), the market must serve the human person and the common good, not vice versa.

Unfortunately, far too often, the debate over economic policy tends to neglect the human, social and moral dimensions of economic life. That is why the formulation and implementation of solutions to our economic woes cannot be left solely to the technicians, special interest groups and the market forces - for what is at stake is not really economic theories or political programs, but human life.

Behind every statistic and chart that seeks to define the problem lie individual tragedies and families trying to cope with unemployment, inflation and poverty. Hence, our present crisis is a moral as well as an economic one, and it must be addressed as such.

Unemployment involves not simply a loss of economic or social status; it is a form of oppression. Human life is diminished when people cannot find creative expression for their talents and provide for themselves and their families through work and the income it provides.

Gift to world
Work, in other words, is more than a way to earn a livelihood. Whether one is a white-collar or blue-collar employee, work is an expression of the human person and an exercise of God-given talents.

A person's work is a gift to the whole community and a way of participating in God's plan for our world. This has been the traditional teaching of our Judeo-Christian heritage and must, I believe, be the essential motivation in combating the injustice of unemployment that afflicts the lives of millions of our fellow Americans and their families.

Fundamentally, then, our nation must provide jobs for those who can and should work and a decent income for those who cannot. An effective national commitment is needed to protect the basic human right to useful and gainful employment for all Americans.

To talk about tolerable levels of unemployment as an antidote to inflation and to develop policies to maintain such is totally unacceptable in human terms.

As a society, we cannot entertain the notion or policy that some will have jobs or income while others must be told that they will have to wait a few more years until market forces right-size themselves.

Government aid
What is the solution? Despite the anti-government rhetoric of an angry populous, both those on the left and the right see a new and expanded role for government in addressing this problem.

For example, Glenn Hubbard, dean of the Columbia School of Government and an economic advisor to President George W. Bush, while not calling for extending unemployment benefits, favors more government spending on job training, as well as help for community colleges to reverse the erosion of job skills among the long termed unemployed.

"We have to help people face a new world," Mr. Hubbard says.

Bill Gross, who runs the world's largest bond fund, PIMCO, is more expansive: "We think the [unemployment] coma will last for years unless government policy changes to restimulate the private sector and bring unemployment down."

Despite his long-held beliefs about free markets, smaller government and lower taxes, Mr. Gross states that public policymakers must recognize that this time, "government is part of the solution."

Gross adds: "In the new normal world, there are structural problems which require structural solutions." So he wants Washington to invest billions on infrastructure improvements and clean energy along with the expanded job training favored by Mr. Hubbard.

Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO, declares that it is bad economics and suicidal politics not to address aggressively the jobs crises at a time of structurally high unemployment.

He points out that the fears of many about high budget deficits over the median and long term will become worse if we allow the economy to slide into a long job stagnation "because unemployed workers don't pay taxes and they don't go shopping; businesses without customers don't hire workers, they don't invest and they also don't pay taxes."

Five ideas
Hence, the AFL-CIO is advocating for a five-point jobs program:

• extending unemployment benefits, including COBRA health benefits for unemployed workers;

• extending federal infrastructure and green jobs investments;

• dramatically increasing federal aid to state and local governments facing fiscal disasters;

• creating jobs directly, especially in distressed communities; and, finally,

• lending TARP money to small and medium-sized businesses that can't get credit because of the financial crisis.

President Trumka reminds us that historically government which acted in the interest of the majority of Americans has produced our greatest achievements: the New Deal, the Great Society, the Civil Rights movement, Social Security, the G.I. Bill, Medicare, the minimum wage and the 40-hour work week.

He says: "This is what made the United States a beacon of hope in a confused and divided world."

Over the Labor Day weekend, as we celebrate the worker and reflect upon the current crisis of unemployment, I hope we will give thanks for the blessing our work is and that we will pray for and support policies that benefit the unemployed in these excruciating economic times.[[In-content Ad]]

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