LABOR DAY: JOB PICTURE WILL IMPROVE FOR NATION

America pauses Monday to honor its workers. Who deserves this recognition more? Despite a tough economy and undeserved criticism from some quarters, working men and women of the United States remain productive and capable, an essential part of what has made this nation a superpower and a shining symbol for the American spirit. Whether at this newspaper or a northeastern factory or a California technology park, the workers of America are deserving of our admiration on this Labor Day.

Among the more ill-advised and baseless comments of 1992 was one forwarded to the United States by the speaker of Japan's House of Representatives, who discounted America's workers in January as "Japan's subcontractors" and insisted they "won't work hard." Smugness of this variety is the result of limited perspective and short memory. The history of the United States is laced with examples of American workers whose invention, integrity and tenacity propelled the nation to achievement. That attitude, fueled by individual character and forged by the settling of a new land, does not dissipate simply because the balance of global trade has shifted.

Economic recovery has been slow in coming to the United States, but there are still blessings to counted among working people, particularly in our region. Unemployment figures released last week showed that 7.6 percent of the labor force is unemployed, a distressing figure certainly but a slight improvement from the previous month. History provides us with a better perspective on this. Ten years ago, the jobless rate in America was 9.7 percent, with 99.5 million people with jobs and 10.6 million unemployed, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. By 1990, the unemployment rate had fallen to 5.5 percent, with almost 118 million people on the job and about 6.8 million without work.

In Missouri, the most recent unemployment numbers 6.4 percent are well below the national rate, and in Cape Girardeau County, the number of jobless 4.7 percent is lower still. In fact, Cape Girardeau County ranks sixth among 114 Missouri counties for low unemployment numbers, with 1,681 jobless out of 35,849 in the county work force. Obviously, the ideal situation would be to see that those remaining 1,681 join the rolls of the employed. With a revitalized economy nationally and proper positioning through economic development efforts locally, some progress may soon be made in that regard.

Our hope is for an America where all citizens who want jobs are capable of getting them. We aren't there yet. We remain optimistic that the jobs outlook while not completely gloomy now will improve.