Yesterday, President Barack Obama spoke at a Labor Day Rally in Detroit challenging Republicans to take on the task of job creation to boost the economy. In anticipation of his upcoming speech to Congress on Thursday, the President spoke about measures to stimulate infrastructure improvements. He called for more domestic oil drilling and road and bridge construction among other measures, alluding to his hope that these new undertakings would create jobs for more than 1 million unemployed construction workers, as well as for other manual labor workers in dire need of employment.
We all know that these jobs need to be created. The question is, is the undertaking of new projects like this the sole answer to such a complex problem? In an editorial published in The New York Times yesterday, Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Paul Osterman advocated for the improvement of job quality over an increase in job quantity. Osterman cited examples of families in poor areas of Texas who were employed but still unable to maintain a healthy standard of living. In the Rio Grande Valley, Osterman’s column stated that one in four employed adults earned less than $6.19 per hour, which isn’t a salary on which to live, by anyone’s standards.
The economics theory-heavy concept of more jobs equals more spending which equals a better economy is an established concept for a reason, but it cannot be the only angle from which we approach the job crisis. The mere availability of employment does not necessarily beget more spending; first, the terms of employment must be such that the employed can live comfortably enough so that they can spend more.
Additionally, job creation for the sake of job creation could potentially open doors for the exploitation of workers. The government should implement measures that hold employers more accountable for wages and benefit standards for their employees. This would not only set the standard for jobs created in the future, but also lower turnover rates in general and help stabilize the national job market.
This is not to say that Obama’s ideas conveyed at the rally would be ineffectual. Rather, they are a good start, but they must be accompanied by provisions that would improve the situation of jobs that currently exist but are insufficient to improve the quality of life or the condition of the economy. Quantity is not irrelevant, but the issue of quality should be elevated to just as great an importance.
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