The changed power relation produced by full employment makes it possible for workers significantly to alter working conditions to meet their needs. Job safety issues can be effectively taken up. Flexible work scheduling suddenly becomes possible. Employer subsidized day care for workers' children becomes an attainable demand. It would reduce the severity of racial oppression.
Racist employers are more likely to put aside their prejudices in tight labor markets.
The expanded job opportunities especially benefit those who previously had the fewest options. Full employment would eliminate the single largest source of waste in the U.S. economy. Unemployed workers could be producing useful goods and services but are denied that possibility. If the unemployment rate had been 3 percent instead of 7 percent in 1986, the GNP would have been approximately 11 percent greater than it was. F. Discrimination Women and minorities have long been the objects of discrimination in U.S. industry.