It was like a scene out of the Depression.

A Crush of Applicants
Huge unexplained traffic jams began building up on the North Side of Chicago last Tuesday morning. Drivers struggled for half an hour or more to travel just four blocks. The police had to close entrance and exit ramps at a couple of spots along Lake Shore Drive. Baffled officers raised their arms in frustration as motorists demanded to know what was going on.

The traffic crush was caused by people desperate for jobs. Rumors that job applications for a Ford assembly plant would be accepted at a community college had swept through several of the city's neighborhoods. Chicagoans by the thousands responded, turning out in bitterly cold weather for a shot at gainful employment.

The first arrivals showed up well before dawn. By 7 a.m. more than 2,000 people had lined up outside Truman College, and the hopefuls kept coming throughout the morning. They shivered, and tears from the cold ran down some of their faces. It was like a scene out of the Depression.

The rumors were false. No job applications were being accepted. City officials said an "orientation" session was being held at the college to identify candidates who might be qualified for relatively low-paying jobs that might materialize in the distant future — next year, maybe — at a supplier of parts for Ford.

This is what the jobs picture is like in the U.S. in 2003. And no one thinks it will get much better soon.

A front-page headline in The New York Times last Thursday said, "Hiring in Nation Hits Worst Slump in Nearly 20 Years." Two million jobs have vanished in the last two years.

Joblessness is right up there with war and terror as an ingredient contributing to the high national anxiety. If you want to see desperation close up, look at the eyes of the increasing numbers of breadwinners who can't find work.

As Tuesday's fiasco in Chicago demonstrated, the situation is much worse than official unemployment statistics would indicate. The government reported on Friday that the jobless rate had slipped to 5.7 percent in January, but few economists believed that was the beginning of any substantial improvement.

If the Bush administration has any real plans for dealing with the nation's employment problems, it is keeping them very carefully concealed. The president insists he's concerned and said again on Friday, "We will not be satisfied until this economy grows fast enough to employ every man and woman who seeks a job."

He's got a long way to go, and his only proposed remedy — ever more tax cuts for the wealthy — is not likely to get him there.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/10/opinion/10HERB.html