Rare kudos to the Washington Post for this excellent and heartbreaking front page story on the plight on union carpenters in Las Vegas. There is simply not nearly enough reporting of this kind from the front lines of our current economic devastation. Right now there are simply thousands of these guys out of work in Vegas -- and hundreds of thousands across the country. These are people with real skills and a high degree of training and craft pride and they are literally being left to rot by the wayside as the construction economy remains a basket case.
It's amazing how quickly and severely this turnaround occurred. I remember not too long ago being in Vegas (a place I am in at least once a year -- I've probably been there 25-30 times over the years) and talking to a client during the ultra boom times and having hm complain to me that the demand for labor was so overwhelming that some of the more mediocre performers from local unions across America would find their way to him -- and that the ubiquitous presence of gambling, drinking, and whoring really made them even more desirable as workers.
Now guys with the best of skills and attitudes sit on the bench for months -- months that are stretching into years. The results are appalling. The article notes that in a span of a few months between November 2009 and February 2010, eight members of one of the Vegas Carpenters' local unions committed suicide.
One complaint about the article is this analysis:
Exactly how much of the unemployment is "structural" is a matter of debate among economists. But it evokes deep concern because it is resistant to stimulus efforts and other quick policy measures.
This strikes me as exactly wrong. These guys have lost their jobs due to an enormous malfuction in the markets. A stimulus devoted to using their skills via direct employment by the government on useful infrstructure programs -- desperately needed programs -- would actually be a highly socially useful way to combat their unemployment until the real estate economy snaps back.
It won't happen because the Republicans would never allow it to happen, but this is not structural in the sense of a mismatch of skills to needs -- its structural in that the construction sector has been devastated by the finance industry.
As a result we are reduced to simply hoping for the best for them -- and so many of the rest of us.
