ROBERT SAMUELSON: LABOR DAY BLUES. “On this Labor Day, there is little good news about labor. We have entered a long period of crushing unemployment and downward pressure on wages that may well transform the nation’s economic and political landscape. There was no job growth in August, and the overall numbers are stupefying: 14 million unemployed; nearly 9 million part-time workers wanting full-time jobs; 6.5 million who want jobs but are so discouraged that they’ve given up looking and are, therefore, not counted in the official labor force. People are only gradually recognizing the magnitude of the problem.”