John M. | Red Phoenix correspondent | Colorado–

As the final days of 2025 unfold, the U.S. economy confronts a somber reality: millions more workers are sidelined, their livelihoods eroded by a system that prioritizes profit over people. The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ delayed September report, released amid the chaos of a record 43-day government shutdown, painted a grim picture of a labor market fraying at the edges. Nonfarm payrolls produced a meager 119,000 jobs while the unemployment rate ticked up to 4.4 percent, the highest since October 2021. This figure, affecting 7.6 million Americans, marks a 0.3 percentage point rise from the previous year, with the number of jobless individuals swelling by nearly 700,000 since late 2024.

These headline numbers barely scratch the surface of the crisis. Beneath the official tally lies a broader measure of labor underutilization—known as the U-6 rate—that climbed to 8 percent in September, encompassing not just the unemployed but those trapped in part-time work for economic reasons and discouraged seekers who have abandoned the hunt altogether. At 4.6 million strong, involuntary part-timers represent a workforce squeezed into survival mode, their hours slashed as employers hoard cash amid faltering demand. Long-term unemployment, defined as spells lasting 27 weeks or more, now claims 23.6 percent of all jobless workers—up sharply from 21.5 percent a year earlier—and totals 1.8 million people, the fastest annual jump since the pandemic. For these workers, the American Dream has spawned into a nightmare of depleted savings, mounting debt, and frayed family ties.

The roots of this swelling unemployment are not random misfortunes but symptoms of a capitalist engine sputtering under its own contradictions. High interest rates, held steady by the Federal Reserve in the 4- 4.2 percent range since December 2024, have choked off investment and consumer borrowing, forcing businesses to trim payrolls rather than expand. Manufacturing and construction, once pillars of industrial might, hemorrhaged jobs: federal workforce cuts alone shaved 12,000 positions in August, while transportation and warehousing shed thousands more amid supply chain snarls intensified by new tariffs on steel and lumber. These policies, aimed at shielding domestic industries, instead boomerang as higher costs strangle small firms and inflate prices for everyday goods, curbing spending and perpetuating a vicious cycle of layoffs.

Immigration crackdowns worsen the strain. A sharp drop in net migration has shrunk the labor pool just as sectors like agriculture and services cry out for hands. This engineered scarcity doesn’t bolster wages for native-born workers; it starves growth, with real consumer spending projected to decelerate to 1.4 percent in 2026 from 2.1 percent this year. Employers, facing thinner margins, respond with automation: artificial intelligence now devours entry-level white-collar roles, locking out recent college graduates whose unemployment rate hit 2.8 percent in September, up from 2.7 percent the prior month. The result? Jobless economic growth, where productivity climbs but jobs evaporate, leaving a rising mountain of unemployed workers to pay the price for corporate windfalls.

The disparities are ruthless. Black workers face a 7.5 percent jobless rate – double the 3.8 percent for white Americans – up from 6.1 percent last year, while Hispanics endure 5.5 percent. For Black women, the median spell of unemployment stretches to 18.5 weeks, eight weeks longer than for white men, as they navigate a market rigged against them. Teenagers, at 13.2 percent unemployed, bear the brunt of entry-level cuts in retail and hospitality, sectors battered by consumer pullback. These are not abstract figures; they are the human cost of a system where the unemployed serve as a cudgel to discipline the employed, keeping wages stagnant even as productivity climbs.

This is no mere slowdown; it’s an inevitable outcome of an economy built on exploitation. Over a million layoffs announced through October stem from firms bracing for recessionary headwinds, yet corporate profits soar as they slash labor costs to pad shareholder returns. The labor force participation rate, stuck at 62.4 percent, masks a deeper retreat: 470,000 entered the market in September, but only 251,000 found work, swelling the reserve army of labor. Wages, meanwhile, grew a tepid 3.8 percent year-over-year, trailing inflation and eroding purchasing power for those still employed.

Yet, in this moment of turmoil, there glimmers a potential for renewal. History teaches that crises like these have always ignited the spark of collective action. The Great Depression birthed the New Deal’s labor protections; the 1970s stagflation fueled union revivals that clawed back wages and rights. Today, as soup lines reform and eviction notices pile up, the working class stands at a crossroads. From the United Auto Workers’ historic strikes to the burgeoning tenant unions in cities like Chicago and Los Angeles, a new militancy is rising, demanding not crumbs from the table but control over the means of production itself.

Categories: Economy, Labor, U.S. News