It seems to me that it is unchangeable in the aggregate. A certain level of unemployment is simply part of our system; the workers are literally incapable of changing the economic variables which create that level. Moreover, a large proportion of the employed are poorly-paid retail workers or laborers; again, it is not possible for the actions of this group to change the size of the different segments of the job market. As such it is a game of musical chairs as to who ends up with the shit jobs, who ends up without a job. The fact that an individual can escape by outdoing his peers only masks the fundamental hopelessness of the situation.