Jobs Report, Murdoch and Unions, etc.

(1) BLS July Jobs Report: The Bureau of Labor Statistics released its Employment Situation Summary today, and it is pretty dismal. Total non-farm payroll employment rose by a mere 117,000. Though the unemployment rate went down ever so slightly, in fact the percentage of people employed is at a new low, according to Dean Baker at the Center for Economic and Policy Research:

The Labor Department reported that the economy created 117,000 jobs in  July and revised prior months’ growth up slightly to bring the average  over the last three months to 72,000. This rate of job growth is below  the 90,000 a month needed to keep pace with the growth of the labor  force. Consistent with this fact, the employment-to-population ratio  (EPOP) fell slightly to 58.1 percent, tying its previous low for the  downturn. While the unemployment rate edged down to 9.1 percent, this  was entirely attributable to people leaving the labor force.

Read the rest of Dean Baker's analysis of the report here.

(2) Murdoch and Unions: We noticed a great piece from the Belfast Telegraph about the history of Rupert Murdoch's union busting and how it might have help fostered a climate that led to the current scandal.  It starts with collusion between the Metropolitan Police and News International to bust a strike of print workers in East London. Sound familiar?

Anyone wondering how the  Murdochs and the Met developed a relationship so close it eventually  became scandalous - that's how. Anyone wondering how the "newsroom  culture" which facilitated phone-hacking developed - here's how.

The argument--well worth reading in full, here, is that a "de-unionized" environment was ripe for the development of a culture in which reporters could be bullied if they didn't go along with the competitive culture of fear imposed by the bosses:

The absence of any organised expression of the distinct interests and  concerns of journalists meant management priorities could be imposed at  will. Journalists were hired on short-term contracts, typically of a  year or six months. There was no need for any sacking procedure. Anyone  who  didn't prove as malleable as the Murdochs, Brooks and Coulsons  demanded would be cast adrift when their contract expired. The result  was, as phone-hacker Glenn Mulcaire has put it, "fear all the time"

That's all for today, except to note that the image above is something I put together for our Sept/Oct issue, to go with an article by San Francisco writer and activist James Tracy about Twitter, Inc. threatening to leave San Francisco unless the city lowered its taxes.  That and lots more great stuff in the works for our annual labor issue.

And to note that I just posted a web-only piece by Vassar prof Tim Koechlin on the debt-ceiling debacle; find it here.

And one last thing:  our summer "dry season" fundraiser is still going on.  If you haven't donated yet, please do so.  There's still time to get a copy of John Millerand Arthur MacEwan's fantastic new book, if you donate $50 or more.

--Chris Sturr