Nov 5, 2011

Can Anyone Really Create Jobs?

Posted by Wendy Weber

According to Adam Davidson, cofounder of NPR’s Planet Money, in a piece he wrote for today’s NY Times, the answer is no.

This is an issue that I follow with great interest, and I have come to the conclusion that, as Davidson states, “No corporate leader is rewarded for hiring people who aren’t absolutely required. Most companies hire only when its workforce can no longer keep up with the demand for its products.”

Davidson says:

o Businesses won’t create jobs
o Politicians can’t create jobs
o Until recently, the U.S. economy had been growing so well for so long that few economists spent much time studying it:

How Little Have Economists Focused on Job Creation?

Source: American Economic Association

The first economic paper to even mention “job creation” wasn’t published until 1979, near the beginning of the last major unemployment crisis. (Only nine were published in the go-go 1980s.)

To read the piece in its entirety, click here.

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