Re:The U.S. Labor Market Isn’t All That Healthy
by supernova87a on Monday July 08, 2019 @02:04PM
(#20385150)
Well, I have long had misgivings about policymakers focusing on single stats as their optimization function.
"Employment" means a lot of things, and a government focused on that simplistic number will probably not produce long term what you want. And we have not incentivized our policymakers / government to do anything but pay attention to that single number. As soon as a politician can claim # of jobs increased, it's as if that alone is great.
What about:
- the quality of the job
- the pay of the job
- the sustainability of the job / industry
- where that work takes us as a country strategically?
So here you have people being told that jobs are being created left and right. But scratch even a little bit and you find that they're not very good jobs. Or they're jobs that are strategically not going to help us in the long run.
"Employment" means a lot of things, and a government focused on that simplistic number will probably not produce long term what you want. And we have not incentivized our policymakers / government to do anything but pay attention to that single number. As soon as a politician can claim # of jobs increased, it's as if that alone is great.
What about: - the quality of the job - the pay of the job - the sustainability of the job / industry - where that work takes us as a country strategically?
So here you have people being told that jobs are being created left and right. But scratch even a little bit and you find that they're not very good jobs. Or they're jobs that are strategically not going to help us in the long run.