It's Labor Day but you'd sure never know it

By Dian Vujovich

Hey, people! It’s Labor Day. But from what I can tell, nobody seems to much care. I haven’t seen any newspaper headlines making a big to-do over it, heard radio or TV personalities talking about it or know of any scheduled parades. This day is like a non- event and what a tragedy that is.

It doesn’t matter if you’re unemployed, underemployed, happily employed, employed and over-worked, employed and under-worked, working two or three jobs to make ends meet or enjoying some wonderful fruits because of your labor, Labor Day is a day to —at the very least—sit down and think about how lucky you are to live in this country of ours. And to live here during this less-then-perfect economic time.

I know that today’s unemployment rate is probably higher than what’s being reported and is higher in some cities and states. Not as bad in others. I also know that there are jobs available today. Right here in America. Some good. Some not paying what you were hoping for or in the field of your dreams. And, just as some corporations are laying-off employees others are gearing up to hire more. More importantly, it’s not large corporations that create the most jobs; it’s the small companies that do. So if August’s zero job growth number has left you complaining remember that there’s nothing stagnant about a jobs number. It, like each of us, is ever changing.

So, decide to work and you’ll find a job. Decide to think that there aren’t any jobs around and you won’t. It’s kind of that simple.

In case you’ve forgotten its meaning, Labor Day was first celebrated with a parade in 1882 in New York’s Union Square. Word is, 10,000 people gathered for it. The idea behind the parade was to pretty much honor our working spirit, trade and labor organizations. No matter what your political stance is today, with any of those elements we wouldn’t have and couldn’t have built much of an America

Labor Day became a federal holiday in 1894 and once upon a time was a day celebrated with parades and listening to speeches. Today, not so. Instead it marks a weekend of store sales, football games and time for the ladies and gents to put their white shoes back on their shoe rack until next summer.

My suggestion for everybody this Labor Day is to take a few minutes to think about all the employment opportunities and disappointments you’ve had during your lifetime. And then to consider where you’d be if you’d never held a one of them.

Happy Labor Day.