News came this morning that we still have an unemployment rate of 10.0 percent. Why? The Bureau of Labor Statistics puts it plainly: “Employment fell in construction, manufacturing, and wholesale trade, while temporary help services and health care added jobs.”

December construction employment decline: 53,000.

Manufacturing employment decline: 27,000.

Wholesale trade employment decline: 18,000 (notably, mostly in durable goods).

Since the recession began, construction and manufacturing alone have lost 3.7 million jobs! I've belabored this invisible workingman crisis throughout 2009, how we view this he-cession's raw deal as a culture and the historic resulting jobless gender gap.

At the risk of berating readers, three in four total job losses in this recession are traditional blue collar jobs. Two-thirds of total losses are experienced by blue collar workingmen. As a result, today, one fifth of men age 25 to 54 have no job.

The employment crisis has lessened since early last year. But the blue collar recession carries on with force, decimating the working class edifice of America. And so they yearn — impatient, exhausted, disillusioned — for leaders who rally to their cause.

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