Mass layoffs in US make 2023 start to look like 2008

Ramin, Mazaheri
Press TV, Chicago

From Silicon Valley to Wall Street to the cryptocurrency sector - but also from Amazon to McDonald’s - seemingly every day sees a new announcement of thousands of layoffs.

Strikes to preserve jobs - once rarely-seen and rarely reported on - are increasing nationwide, but it’s hard to precisely say how bad unemployment will get because there is increasing admission that the official jobless statistics are wilfully inaccurate. Full-time job offers have plunged while part-time work - which pays less and offers few benefits like health care - have soared. But the increase in part-time work continues to count towards “full employment” to give the United States an official unemployment rate of three point five percent.

Many believe that when the nation’s top bankers know that their sustained hike in interest rates are guaranteed to produce layoffs and recession, then it’s clear that fiscal policy isn’t aimed at protecting the lower and middle classes.

The near-certainty of high unemployment long-term has caused a small group of progressives in Congress to accuse the Fed of having an “apparent disregard for the livelihoods of millions of working Americans”.

President Joe Biden has allowed the pandemic era’s successful and unprecedented monetary redistribution policies to lapse, throwing many households and children back into poverty amid the inflation-related instability.

The Washington-based lender the World Bank just slashed their growth outlook for the global economy by half, predicted that one-third of the world to fall into recession this year and said that the United States will have a growth rate of just zero point five percent.

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