Jobs assault deepens, while report says workers’ share of national income has fallen to 55 percent

New unemployment claims in the US for the week ending May 4 showed an increase of more than 10 percent from the previous week, with the number of workers filing for benefits going from 209,000 to 231,000, according to the US Labor Department.

The increase was the largest since August 2023. Weekly unemployment claims are considered a proxy for the number of layoffs taking place during a specific week and an indication of the direction of employment generally.

Another sign of the growing assault on jobs in the US was the Labor Department’s report that employers added just 175,000 jobs in the month of April, the fewest over the past six months, and the unemployment rate went up to 3.9 percent from 3.8 percent in March. Job openings were also reported at 8.5 million in March, which is the lowest number in three years.

The capitalist press maintains that these unemployment numbers are nothing to worry about. As the Associated Press reported, the increase in weekly unemployment shows a “relatively low number of layoffs and not cause for concern.”

For the working class, these indicators are a warning that the jobs massacre in recent months is ramping up and wreaking havoc on workers and their families under conditions of rising cost of living due to inflation.

For millions of workers, especially young people, entry-level jobs start at $15 an hour—or less, and these employees wind up being stuck at this wage without any opportunity for an increase for years. Meanwhile, this situation prevails while the workers are given part-time hours, and they are vulnerable to being laid off due to corporate cost-cutting.

Additionally, these trends play into the dramatic decline in the social position of the working class over the last 25 years. According to data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the share labor receives of national income has fallen to 55.8 percent as of the first quarter of 2024. A little more than two decades ago, in 2001, the BLS reported that the national income share of non-farm workers stood at 64.1 percent.

This situation is the product of grotesque levels of income inequality under capitalism. As reported by the Guardian, for example, a McDonald’s worker who has been with the company for 10 years is now making $15 an hour, while “Comparatively, the McDonald’s chief has one of the highest CEO-to-worker pay ratios in the world, at 1,224 times the median worker pay. A typical McDonald’s worker would have to work more than 1,200 years to make his compensation for a year.”