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Where are the jobs? By Jeff Jackson 3/30/04

We are living in a political season where the knock against our economy and the job market is that jobs are being shipped overseas from the United States. Despite a low unemployment rate of 5.6% from the Establishment Survey, Americans seem convinced that unemployment is rampant and that we are living in the worst economy since the Great Depression. People seem convinced that while they have work and their neighbors and friends have work the “other guy” around the corner is suffering and out of work. They seem convinced that the fictitious “Andersons” are in deep trouble.

While there are certainly unemployed in the United States and poverty as a result of some people unable to find work and the jobs they want, this is not unusual. However in this season and for whatever reason the economy is perceived as particularly dire. The cry of “Where have the jobs gone?” echoes through the partisan halls of the capital and, we are to believe, the streets of America.

The problems with the Establishment Survey versus the Household Survey aside I find it remarkable that as the population base of America continues to grow and the work force enlarges that we have an “official” unemployment rate of only 5.6%. Why you ask? Simply because that with all the progress we have made over the years we continually require fewer and fewer man hours to accomplish the necessary tasks for survival and the other jobs that make our lives better.

At the turn of the century it might take a 100 men a few weeks to dig a ditch by hand and shovel for power lines and sewers. Today it takes 10 men at with a backhoe maybe a week. In the 1940s it might have taken 20 men to operate a strip line in the steel mill where as today you have a couple of controllers, an engineer and a maintenance technician. In the 1800’s it would take an enormous amount of manpower to plant, harvest and move to market a crop of corn. Now a single family can operate their own farm with harvesters and tractors.

Through technology we continually not only eliminate the actual number of persons required to do a certain job but also reduce the time it takes to actually do the job. Wow. That is mind boggling to me. Year after year, innovation after innovation we eliminate jobs and time and we STILL only have 5.6% unemployment? Those kind of thoughts can knock me over with a feather.

When jobs are lost however, partisans will find any excuse that makes themselves look good. Right now it isn’t technology and increased productivity that is reducing the need for certain jobs (not jobs overall however) but instead evil corporations seeking to ship jobs overseas to reduce costs and increase profits. While I am certain that SOME jobs are in fact moved to India, Mexico and China because of lower costs if we were truly hemorrhaging jobs as some would have us believe, how are we only at 5.6% unemployment? Some will claim that many people have given up looking for work and that distorts the unemployment numbers downward. They claim it, however they have no evidence that such a thing is happening on a scale large enough to do so especially when you look at the Household Survey which shows a marked increase in small business creation and hiring to the tune of several hundred thousand in the last quarter. In other words, jobs are now being created by small business instead of big EVIL corporations.

The partisans should be thrilled at the dying of their arch nemesis. But no. In this season they are plugging for sound bites. Talking about hemorrhaging jobs to overseas countries or even to Mexico makes excellent sound bites for people with agendas and who think that talking down the economy is a method to convince people that the economy is in fact terrible and thus gain or re-gain power. Right now we are in the mode of if you repeat something often enough and loud enough people will start to believe it. It makes great snippets for TV and a distraction for real problems that exist with this country and real attacks against our Constitution and our way of life but nothing else.

Jobs in America are lost every time we make progress, every time we envision and implement a better method and every time someone dares to move us further away from the stone age. Jobs are lost because we get better. But even with years of requiring fewer and fewer workers to do a job and a growing work force we still have only 5.6% official unemployment and higher and higher standards of living and household income. Wow once again.

100 years ago you couldn’t operate a computer technical support call center in India. First of course because obviously 100 years ago there were no computers. But secondly and more importantly it could not be done because technology was not available to troubleshoot problems from that far away.

The end result of technology is several fold. First it makes our lives easier, secondly it requires fewer people for the same job as previously, thirdly it makes us more productive, and fourthly it makes the world as we know it smaller. But fifthly and most importantly it frees up man power from labor intensive tasks and shifts it to life enhancing tasks such as inventing bigger and better technology to continue to make our lives easier, require fewer people for the same job as previously, make us more productive, and make the world as we know it smaller.

It is a self perpetuating upward spiral; a rising tide that lifts all boats. The more time we as people have to dedicate to making our lives better instead of doing the basic, labor intensive tasks required for survival helps us as humanity. It is true that today we don’t have 100s of people running around the shipping docks to unload ships and having those ships sitting in dock for weeks. We don’t because we have bigger cranes, fewer man hours required, and better packing methods. We also gain quicker delivery of perishable goods, and professionals such as Doctors and Engineers because there just are not the jobs available on the dock and these people have to do something to provide for themselves and their families. And while the dock worker’s job is vital to this country we also gain others that are busy and hard at work continuing to try and improve our lives and even the lives of those still working on the dock. We gain people who’s role in life is not to provide basic goods and services, but through education and experience have the sole role of improving the way we manufacture, distribute and implement these basic necessities.

But this upward spiral also hurts.

It hurts it because the less time the average person has to spend doing the basic things required for survival the more time they have to ponder life and the more quickly they forget how essential those things are to their survival. They have more time to ponder anything that they perceive as wrong or unjust whether it is actually “wrong” or not. Idle hands are the Devil’s work. And those with the idle hands tend to question why they are able to better their own lives and work less and gain more while some others have not been capable of such fortune. They ponder and then feel guilty about it.

And as such, sympathy of those with idle hands believe that even 5.6% unemployment is far too high in a nation as great as America. 5.6% unemployment is completely unacceptable and somehow the result of an unjust society and evil corporations out only to make a buck or two by fleeing to other countries and stepping on the backs of the “little guy“.

Questioning the world around us is a great thing. It is a great thing as long as we stick to the facts or at least a reasonable opinion of events. And the facts are that we, as a nation are prospering and chugging right along despite 2 World Wars, several localized wars and numerous terrorist attacks. The facts are that there is a certain segment of the populace that is unemployed for various reasons be it personal choice, job market flux or whatever have you.

But the facts are also that if the average American sits down and thinks about the number of involuntary unemployed people they know who want work that that number is most likely around 6 out of 100. Notice that I said “average”. Some out there will know more and some will know less. However that does not make that statement wrong or otherwise false as will be claimed. You can claim the sky is falling but not even the Establishment Survey which has been the standard determination of unemployment for years doesn’t supports this.

When you look at the job “situation” in America, take the claims with a grain of salt. Its time to stop worrying about the fictitious “Andersons” who are living in a run down shack with 10 children, no shoes and forced to eat moss off the trees because their dad has been unemployed for 5 years after being fired by MEGACORP. There will always be stories of hardship and the impoverished will always exist. No matter what. Have compassion for the real “Andersons” of the world and be generous to them through your voluntary charity. But don’t base the future of this nation upon the plight of a vast minority of people who are for whatever reason down on their luck or voluntarily unemployed because they can‘t find the job that they want. Most of the time that bad luck is temporary. And if you institute a permanent fix to a temporary problem, all you get is a permanent problem. Being an American does not guarantee you happiness, only the right to be in constant pursuit of it.

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